Not so shocking for what it says as who says it and where. Ezra Klein, in the Washington Post:
Typically, I try to tie the beginning of Wonkbook to the news. But today, the most important sentence isn’t a report on something that just happened, but a fresh look at something that’s been happening for the last three years. In particular, it’s this sentence by the Financial Times’ Ed Luce, who writes, “According to government statistics, if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.”
Remember that the unemployment rate is not “how many people don’t have jobs?”, but “how many people don’t have jobs and are actively looking for them?” Let’s say you’ve been looking fruitlessly for five months and realize you’ve exhausted every job listing in your area. Discouraged, you stop looking, at least for the moment. According to the government, you’re no longer unemployed. Congratulations?
He goes on to tell the truth about unemployment, and the dirty little secret the Obama Administration is keeping from Americans. He doesn’t discuss the underemployed, though, which is a number that is almost as important (and almost as high) as the unemployment rate. Anyone pushing the Obama Boom™ mythology is going to run up against a cold, unfeeling reality next fall. Things haven’t gotten any better during the entire Obama Administration. Not only were “Shovel-ready” jobs not, you know, shovel-ready, they never materialized. Not even three years after the largest Keyensian stimulus in history. The GOP should make much of this in the mothys ahead. They’ll beat it like war-drums, if they want to win the election next year.
Tags: Obama Boom, tcot, the New Depression
