On the first Friday of each month, the U.S. Department of Labor announces job numbers and unemployment figures for the previous month. During the early months of 2012, the figures looked particularly good for the Obama Administration and Democrats. Jobs were growing at over 250,000 per month, and unemployment was dropping from the 9% threshold that seemed to be the barometer that would determine whether or not Obama was going to win reelection in November.<\/p>\n
The past several months have been odd as unemployment continues to decline (down significantly to 8.1% from April,) while the number of jobs has increased at a rate less than the rate of population growth in the United States. In April, the number of people with jobs increased by only 115,000, down from March, when the figure was a paltry 154,000.<\/p>\n
As John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo said<\/a>, \u201cIf there are less people working, then your potential for what the economy can produce is reduced.\u201d<\/p>\n The private sector is growing slightly, while the public sector is a veritable factory producing unemployment. Restaurants and bars produced 20,000 jobs in April. We all know how much bars add to the quality of life in America; something approximating the value of casinos. As Walter Mondale might say, \u201cWhere\u2019s the manufacturing?\u201d<\/p>\n Even before Scott Walker became governor of Wisconsin, the public sector had been hemorrhaging jobs at a cascading rate. Teachers, police officers, fire fighters, sanitation workers and others have been laid off without having their positions replaced. Pensions have been reduced and in some cases eliminated. Salaries have been decreased, at times with the salutary motive of limiting how many workers are fired.<\/p>\n While progressives long for the unemployment rate to go down, particularly to provide evidence that the recession stoked by President George W. Bush is in recovery, the figures can be misleading. The current U.S. work force is hovering under 155 million<\/a>. The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of people looking for work by this 155 million. That means that in April there were over twelve and a half million people looking for work who could not find a job.<\/p>\n If all 12.5 million individuals looking for work had jobs and no one was looking for work, employment would be 100%, and unemployment would be 0%. However, this mathematical equation works at any number. If only one person was looking for a job and he or she had found it, then unemployment rate would also be 0%, because no one else would be unsuccessfully looking for a job, thus making the employment rate 100%.<\/p>\n