Today's unemployment numbers are out and unemployment has dropped from 9.1 percent to 9.0 percent, but with every unemployment piece I always point to a paragraph within the official summary release from United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics which discusses how over 2 million unemployed are not counted into the "official" unemployment numbers.From today's release:
In October, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as 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.
When those numbers are added into the count, this brings the real unemployment, called the U6, which is the "Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force," to 16.2 percent.
That number is also is from United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, just another page.
So when Nancy Pelosi claims that if "President Obama and the House congressional Democrats had not acted, we would be at 15 percent unemployment. Again, no consolation to those without a job, but an important point to make," she neglects to mention the U6 as an "important point."
As Hot Air points out, even Congressional Budget Office (CBO) disagrees with Pelosi false claims which she presents no evidence to support and seems to pull those numbers directly out of her butt.
A report published by the Congressional Budget Office in August estimated that in the fourth quarter of 2011, the stimulus signed by President Obama in 2009 would have the impact of reducing the national unemployment rate between 0.3 points to 1.1 points from what it otherwise would have been.
If Pelosi thinks (9.0 + 0.3 = 15) or (9.0 + 1.1 = 15), she must have as much trouble with math as Obama does. According to that report, the best Pelosi could claim is that, without the stimulus, unemployment might have been somewhere in the range of 9.3 percent or 10.1 percent.
The bottom line is unemployment has risen since Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid along with Democratic politicians passed the so-called stimulus bill.
Pelosi cannot even add 9+1, is it any wonder voters in the 2010 midterms no longer wanted her in control of the House of Representatives which control our nation's purse strings?
An additional note here: This is the woman Barack Obama said was "one of the best" Speakers of the House "this country has ever had."
Since Republicans were elected to control of the House of Representatives in November of 2010 (They took control in January 2011) , and stopped the Obama agenda from being rammed through both houses of Congress when they were both Democratically controlled, the official unemployment has fluctuated but is lower today than the day they assumed control.
As usual in our unemployment pieces we list areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:
Alabama- 9.8%
Arizona 9.1%
California- 11.9%
D.C.- 11.1%
Florida- 10.6%
Georgia- 10.3%
Idaho- 9.0%
Illinois 10.0%
Kentucky- 9.7%
Michigan- 11.1%
Mississippi- 10.6%
Nevada- 13.4%
New Jersey- 9.2%
North Carolina- 10.5%
Ohio- 9.1%
Oregon- 9.6%
Rhode Island- 10.5%
South Carolina- 11.0%
Tennessee- 9.8%
Washington 9.1%
Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)
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