September Jobs Report Facts
President Obama, while on his most recent campaign tour across America, once again referred to his much-fabled Summer of Recovery on numerous occasions. ( While telling people to call Congress and demand they pass his supposed jobs bill right away! ) With many economists across the nation stating that real unemployment is actually hovering around 17% today, we must question Obama’s choice of using the Summer of Recovery as a reelection tool. President Obama now also has an actual record for voters to look back upon and evaluate, unlike when he made the leap from Chicago community organizer to the U.S. Senate back in 2005, and then pole-vaulted into the White House, again with no record of achievement, other than voting “present” while in the U.S. Senate. With the upcoming September jobs numbers soon to come out, we see further glimpses of how the supposed Summer of Recovery will soon be known as the Failure of the Fall under Barack Obama.
From twincities.com we see the following: "In the service sector, hotels, restaurants, banks and other companies that employ 90 percent of Americans reduced the size of their workforces in September, according to a survey of purchasing managers conducted by the Institute of Supply Management."
It has to be considered difficult to spin the fact that 90% of employers in America’s service sector reduced their workforces in September into a positive light. The Obama administration has shown us the past pattern of cherry-picking certain numbers to fluff up the economic forecast in the past, and we can expect to see more of the same in the upcoming days. It is the big picture we should be hearing from our President however, in keeping more in line with the truth, not cherry-picking the bright spots of September’s economy to mislead the people. Barack Obama, however is in perpetual campaign mode today, so much so that Speaker Boehner went so far as to ask him to get off the campaign trail and actually do his job recently, as we see here. While most people now know the Summer of Recovery campaign line Obama still uses so often is a bunch of bunk, ( still 9% U/E, which is actually more like 17%) he has no choice but to try to continue to prop up that fable in order to be reelected. High unemployment numbers are directly tied to our stagnant economy, which is like a boat anchor tied around Obama’s neck when it comes to his reelection wishes. Barack Obama now has a record to defend, and it isn’t good, period.
So what could the Obama’s handlers cherry-pick from September’s jobs numbers to try to get the people to forget about the big picture and think we are still in some kind of economic recovery? Here is one: ADP payroll processor said private companies added 91,000 jobs in September. Sounds good doesn’t it? The fact is that ADP’s jobs numbers have never been consistent with the government’s numbers on a regular basis, and they do not measure government hiring. Expect to hear candidate Obama use the 91k jobs-added figure frequently in the next few weeks of his campaign tour. When we look once again at the big picture, we see some facts he will leave out: Employment consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas said U.S. employers announced plans in September to shed more than 115,000 workers – the highest total in more than two years. Does that speak of a Summer of Recovery or The Failure of the Fall there?
The big picture also includes such things such as Bank of America announcing that they will be cutting 30,000 workers over the next few years, The U.S. Army announcing that they will be cutting 50,000 troops in the next 5 years, and this tidbit for Joshua Shapiro, an economist at MFR inc, "The sharp drop in September is quite worrisome," in a note to clients. "If this was not an aberration, in all likelihood we are going to see private payrolls disappoint in the months ahead." yet you can bet your bottom dollar we will hear Barack Obama spew the "We added 91,00 jobs in September" soundbite while ignoring the big picture explained here once again. As the leaves start to change color signifying the end of Summer and the upcoming months of Winter that has many American families ( especially Senior citizens who have not had a cost of living increase in two years) worried to death about how they will fit their heating bills into an already tight budget, the economy-is-moving-forward message coming out of the White House ludicrous, to say the least. As far as our economy goes, everything points towards the fact that we are heading into The Failure of the Fall, never mind the blatant fact that the whole Summer of Recovery fallacy told by Barack Obama for the last 5 months was shown to be just another fairy tale that shows just how out of touch with reality he truly is. 2012 just can’t get here fast enough.
NOTE: To add insult to injury is this example of how Ben Bernanke is now shown to be going to implement what folks are calling QE3 with a twist, to further keep the people in the dark about just how bad our economy truly is today. Bernanke May Borrow From JFK, Use ‘QE3’ to Buy Longer-Dated Treasurys from CNBC"s Fast Money.
And this just in: New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 401,000 from 395,000 the week before. Economists had been expecting a bigger jump to 410,000. So what? We have a total of 401,000 people on U/E now, with the added 6000 of this week, so who cares who "projected" what. Keep the big picture in mind folks.