The July Jobs Report is a Total Disaster for U.S. Workers

Let's put this July jobs report in perspective.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy supposedly grew 163,000 jobs last month.  Except that's not exactly true.

Rush Limbaugh was on a roll about these numbers yesterday.  He called Obama "a closed-minded economic bigot."  Here's his take:

Sadly, folks, there were 195,000 fewer people employed in this country in July than there were in June. It might have been 172,000 new jobs.  That's even debatable.  But it was a net wash because -- these are numbers from the BLS report.  I'm not making it up.  Obama's Department of Labor's own numbers, 195,000 fewer people employed in the United States in July than there were in June.  We lost jobs.  We also lost more people from the labor force.  The national unemployment rate went up, 8.2 to 8.3%. One-hundred and fifty thousand people simply dropped out of the labor force.  Actually that number is 155,000, which means that this 172,000 new jobs that he's trumpeting are actually a wash, folks.  No net new jobs, 195,000 fewer people employed, 150,000 simply dropped out of the labor force.  That's the pattern. 

If you figure in all the people that have just quit looking for work and have dropped out or gone on disability then our unemployment is closer to 15%.

Ed Morrissey:

July saw a slight move up in U-6, which had been coming down earlier in the year to the mid-14 range.  That measure of un/underemployment has now risen to 15.2%, increasing in both adjusted and unadjusted measures.  It’s the highest rating in this measure since February, and it’s now up more than a full point since April. 

Historically, no sitting president has won re-election with numbers like this.

Chris Cillizza:

Because the July jobs report affirmed the now-certain reality that the unemployment rate won’t drop below eight percent between today and November. And no sitting president since World War II has been re-elected with the unemployment rate above 7.2 percent. 

The numbers are daunting for Obama. The unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 42 straight months— its longest period ever.

Remember, Obama said he would get unemployment down under 6% if Congress passed the stimulus.  He's quite a long way from that.

James Pethokoukis on the jobs report:

Not only is the 8.3% unemployment rate way above the 5.6% unemployment rate that Team Obama predicted for July 2012 if Congress passed the $800 billion stimulus plan. It’s way above the 6.0% unemployment rate they predicted if no stimulus was passed.

In his remarks yesterday, "the smartest president ever" redefined economic policy as we know it to work with his theory of trickle-up economics:

And keep in mind, we're talking about folks like me going back to the tax rates that existed under Bill Clinton.  If you remember, that was when we created 23 million new jobs, we went from deficits to surplus, and folks at the top did well, too -- because when middle-class families have money in their pockets, they go out and buy that new car, or that new appliance, or that new computer for their kids, or they go out to a restaurant, or, heaven forbid, they take a vacation once in a while.  And that money goes back into the economy, and businesses do well because they've got more customers.

So the rich get richer because the middle class spends money?  And the middle class gets this money where?  Food stamps?  After all, that's Nancy Pelosi's theory.  She explained her food-stamps-as-stimulus theory back in 2010.  That these people are running the country just scares the hell out of me.

Rush Limbaugh again:

Did you catch that?  The money starts with the middle class, and as long as the middle class has money, then they go out and spend it, and that's how the rich get rich.  Wow!  Wow!  Folks at the top did well, too, because when middle-class families have money in their pockets, they go out and buy that new car, that new appliance, or that new computer for their kids when they've got money in their pocket. So we gotta get money into the hands of the middle class.  How we gonna do that?  We're gonna do food stamps.  Trickle up.  So we got a brand-new economic definition here from Mr. Wizard of Smart.  

It's just incredible.  How can the polls even be close?  As Mark Steyn said, "This should not be a close race."

Every number, every statistic, every graph, every calculation you look at shows Obama's ruinous effect on our economy from the explosion of the entitlement state to unemployment and more.

And stop to think for a moment about all the job killing regulations that are to come via the EPA and ObamaCare (for starters).  Think about Taxmageddon coming in January. ObamaCare is already killing jobs.  Think about another four years under Obama's energy policy (gas prices are now more than double what they were when he took office).

In light of all that, if Obama wins in November, we may look back at this jobs report and think these were the good old days.


(Graphic from James Pethokoukis)