By: Dr. Mike Campbell
As Mark Twain and Disraeli had it, “there are lies, damned lies and statistics”. There once was a time when, if you didn’t have a job and you wanted one, then you were considered to be unemployed. When employment, or rather the lack of it, became a political issue, parties of all hues and in most nations decided that a “black and white” definition of unemployment was less than helpful (to them) and a plethora of new ways of counting those without jobs that would flatter the real figures were invented.
With this in mind, one has to view the most recent US job figures. The number of new jobs created in May has slumped to 54000 from a (downwardly adjusted) 230000 in April. Analysts had expected the May figure to show that 150000 jobs had been added in May, so the reality was quite a let down. The US economy has been seeing new jobs created for the past eight straight months which must surely be a good thing. However, the unemployment rate rose to 9.1% from 9% in April which is where Messers Disraeli and Twain come in.
The fact that the unemployment rate has not fallen implies that at least 54000 jobs have been lost from the US economy. The number of people who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks actually rose 361000 to 6.2 million. The total employment in the USA is 5% below where it stood in the pre-recession peak three and a half years ago. The downturn in US employment has been the worst jobs recession in the US since World War II. Some 13.9 million Americans are without employment and presumably don’t care how politicians count them – what they want is work.
US Employment Growth Falters
Dr. Mike Campbell is a British scientist and freelance writer. Mike got his doctorate in Ghent, Belgium and has worked in Belgium, France, Monaco and Austria since leaving the UK. As a writer, he specialises in business, science, medicine and environmental subjects.