President Obama and his fellow Democrats spent most of last week’s convention claiming that they’ve made “progress” in rebuilding America’s economy.
But Friday’s jobs report makes the reality painfully clear.
In August, businesses created a paltry 96,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said — yet again too small a number to signal any real gains in the economy.
And though unemployment dipped two-tenths of a point, from 8.3% to 8.1%, that was only because some 368,000 workers left the job market.
A loss, that is, of folks who’ve become too frustrated to keep seeking work or who quit for other reasons — and thus are no longer counted as “unemployed.”
Think about it: For every job added, four people gave up looking for work.
Poof — they’re gone. Off the charts.
If the same share of Americans was still in the labor force as when Obama took office, the actual unemployment rate would be well over 11 percent.
That’s “progress”?
Well, maybe it is if you close your eyes to all the ground that’s been lost — and pretend the record 89 million jobless adults not seeking work just don’t exist.
Fact is, the share of workers still in the labor force, 63.5%, has hit a 31-year low. America hasn’t seen such awful numbers since just after the Jimmy Carter years.
And what’s the White House’s response?
All is fine, folks. Just give us four more years.
(Four poor years is more like it.)
“Businesses have added jobs for the 30th month in a row,” Obama beamed. Never mind the tiny number of jobs added.
Or the new armies of folks out of work.
Indeed, a White House statement helpfully advised Americans “not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (And, by the way, how about those Yankees?)
Dems’ efforts to switch subjects and twist the stats don’t end there: Last week, Bill Clinton bragged that the president created 4.5 million jobs. Yet the employment figure has actually fallen since Obama took office.
The former president blamed “congressional Republicans” for the lack of more jobs.
But the GOP is likely to hold the House next year; is Clinton suggesting that Obama won’t be able to produce more new jobs then, either?
Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, claimed that Obama saved auto-industry jobs. “General Motors is alive,” he bragged.
But that was only thanks to tens of billions of taxpayer dollars — which went mostly to bail out union workers. Is the White House planning a similar cash bath for the other 13 million job seekers?
Americans won’t be fooled: The economy is in a rut. It’s gone 43 straight months with an 8 percent-plus official jobless rate, and an even higher unofficial one.
Friday, Mitt Romney called that a “national tragedy.” He’s absolutely right.
And if Dems won’t even admit the problem, how can they be expected to fix it?