The Employment Situation Summary released by the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows that job growth has come to a screeching halt and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent and the economy showed zero job growth in August.
As I note in these reports, the summary also shows that 2.6 million people not working are not included into that 9.1 percent official figure.
About 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, up from 2.4 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)
Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the real time unemployment called the U-6 which counts the unemployed in addition to those marginally attached to the workforce or working part-time for economic reasons has risen from 16.1 to 16.2 percent.
Areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:
Alabama- 10.0%
Arizona 9.4%
California- 12.0%
Connecticut 9.1%
D.C.- 10.8%
Florida- 10.7%
Georgia- 10.1%
Idaho- 9.4%
Illinois 9.5%
Kentucky- 9.5%
Michigan- 10.9%
Mississippi- 10.4%
Nevada- 12.9%
New Jersey- 9.5%
North Carolina- 10.1%
Oregon- 9.5%
Rhode Island- 10.8%
South Carolina- 10.9%
Tennessee- 9.8%
Washington 9.3%
Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)
Barack Obama has not sent Congress a written jobs plan, no tangible proposal, but no worries, he will be making a speech about his "plan" on September 8, 2011. A speech that Obama has already attempted to use as a campaigning tool by trying to force a pre-scheduled televised GOP debate on September 7, 2011 to be moved to accommodate his campaign speech on jobs.
That attempt failed.
The Politico reports that the White House is "furious" that their political ploy didn't work.
Headline of the day in regards to the whole speech debacle goes to Outside The Beltway with "White House Officials Upset That Republicans Playing Politics Interfered With Their Attempt To Play Politics."
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