Sio I woke up Friday morning to a new tone on the classical music station in Phoenix that carries National Public Radio: the announcer almost breathless in excitement, crowing that the economy has started moving again, only (get ready for this) shedding 54,000 jobs in August. As usual NPR dragged out some so-called economics expert to say that the better-than expected loss in jobs proves the economy is starting to move again as private employers start to hire again.
Wait a minute, I thought, how can that be? The jobless rate last month was 9.5%, and most, if not all economists, mentioned at that time it was damned lucky not to have gone up then, and that an increase in the unemployment rate over the next few months was all but guaranteed. Something didn’t make sense here.
Well it’s a damned good thing hopelessly liberal outets like NPR and their cohorts in the (as Sarah Palin calls them) “lame-stream media” don’t rule the information roost these days like they could back in the ’80s and ’90s. The Internet has changed everything, and if I want to know what’s reallyhappening, I can start my day (as I usually do) over at places like the Drudge Report and Hot Air, where I can get links all the news that the bow-tied, bum-kissing liberal suck-ups inside the Beltway don’t want you to hear.
And, sure enough, there it was. NPR, typically, skewed their reporting to show the rosiest picture possible, but on this Labor Day the employment picture is anything but rosy. Sure, the private sector added 67,000 jobs in August, but, when you think of where we ought to be coming out of a recession, that’s pathetic. Overall, the economy still shed 54,000 jobs, raising the unemployment rate to 9.6%.
Reuters ran with the same rosy headline NPR did, but Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, as usual, nails it right on the head:
Bottom line, the economy still has not started to create jobs, and we are continuing to fall further and further behind. The baseline population growth requires a positive job-growth level of 100,000 or more just to break even, so 67,000 additional jobs means we lost ground by at least 33,000 jobs. The slowdown in private-sector job growth even from the below-water level we have mainly seen in the last two years indicates that we’re in for a long, dry spell.
…So we created 40,000 fewer private sector jobs and the unemployment rate went up, and that’s a surprise on the upside? That’s mighty fine spin by Reuters [and, I might add, NPR]… and completely expected.
Thank you, Obamacrats - November can’t come soon enough.
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Pool temp: 89 degrees
