Welcome to Obamaville

Why is this baffling to anyone?

The unemployment rate drops to 9.0% in January. 36,000 jobs added. Half a million drop out of the work force.

THERE IS NO GOOD NEWS HERE. NONE.

To keep up with population growth alone we need to add 200,000 jobs a month. Not 36,000. And that's just for population growth. It doesn't make a dent in National Unemployment.

So the drop to 9.0% is attributable not to weather, not to people actually getting back to work.

It is attributable to people who have given up looking for work. They are no longer counted.

It is attributable to people who have expired the U.C. benefits (such the 99ers+) who, although they have not found a job, are no longer counted as unemployed because they have had the misfortune of being unemployed too long (I'm dangerously close to being among them).

It is attributable to people who take jobs far below their skill level, or working part time just to maintain body and soul as one fluid entity. The computer programmer cashiering or stocking shelves at Wal-Mart. The phone super tech changing tires and pumping gas. The marketing exec selling real estate or cemetary plots.

These are the peope losing their homes, blowing through savings and taking early withdrawals from their 401Ks and IRAs to try to keep up. Wiping out their years of hard work and whatever small amount of wealth they had managed to accumulate. Forget about the kids' college fund. We need to pay the mortgage.

And the other side of this that does not go reported is what long term unemployment does to a person's sense of self worth, their psyche. The depression. The feeling of not contributing to anything.

Sitting at home for hours on end, staring at a computer, hoping something ANYTHING will show up in their search. When their most consistant human contact during the day is the grocery store cashier. Social skills going right out the window. Job skills atrophying. Countless resumes and cover letters and letters requesting information sent, most unanswered. Phone calls not returned by their "network" or returned with a "How ya doing, where ya working right now? Oh really? Wow, that's terrible. Try to hang in there. Something will open up soon."

9.0%? 16.1%? Nah. I'd bet closer to 22 -25 % if you count everyone who is not working at their appropriate level.

I'm out here 17 months now. And I have never been more down about my own future and that of America herself. That is not normally the kind of person I am.

BMI:

Santelli Slams CNBC Panelists for Spinning Jobs Report

CNBC's floor reporter criticizes 'kool-aid drinkers' for trying to find good news in the 'disappointing.'

• By Julia A. Seymour
• Friday, February 04, 2011 10:16 AM EST

Jobs are heading up and down at the same time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the morning of Feb. 4 that only 36,000 jobs were added in the month of January, but the unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 percent to 9.0 percent.

The mainstream news media will likely latch on to the dropping unemployment rate, despite job gains that were less than one-fourth of the consensus estimate of 148,000 jobs added. One of the CNBC panelists noted that the increase was "way below consensus."
CNBC's Rick Santelli even lashed out at some of the CNBC "Squawk Box" panel that were discussing the latest jobs report.

"[W]e have overwhelming evidence the jobs market is disappointing, and all of you are trying to look for that one half of spaghetti in a 50 lb. spaghetti bowl. This is not great data," Santelli claimed. "We know that the U6 probably gives you a better indication of the true unemployment rate …"
CNBC's Steve Liesman interjected: "It went down, Rick. It went down - "
"Yeah, what is it?" asked Santelli.
"It went down Rick, to 16.1 [percent]," Liesman said.
"Oh boy, guys! 16.1 [percent] is probably the unemployment rate. That's cause celebre," Rick sarcastically shouted on the trading floor of the Chicago mercantile exchange.
"But it fell from 16.7," Liesman insisted.
Santelli continued to criticize the spin: "You know what Steve? You and I both know that the unemployment rate, the labor force moving in and out, those giving up, is really probably your best statistical reason for the drop to 9.0 (percent). And in terms of jobs, you, Mr. Steve Liesman, said if you work just one day. If you stay home but you get paid you're counted in the data …"
"Right - it shouldn't be weather," Liesman acknowledged. Some of the panelists including Moody's economist Mark Zandi had blamed weather for drops in construction and other sectors.
"So this is probably less distorted," Santelli concluded.
But the fact that the two different economic surveys conducted by the BLS were moving in different directions was baffling to many. Even the liberal Economic Policy Institute noted on its blog that the picture was "muddled."
"Given the confounding nature of this report, we will have to wait at least another month to see if the labor market is rebounding strongly," Heidi Shierholz wrote for EPI.