September 28, 2013

CHART: Minimum Wage vs. Unemployment Rate, 1948 – 2012

Most Americans believe the minimum wage should be increased. It would make good economic sense, and it would help pull people out of poverty. But many Republicans in Washington say this is a non-starter because raising the minimum wage would be a job killer. But how do we know this is true? Should we just take their word for it? And come to think of it, calling something a job killer seems to be the boilerplate Republican response to just about anything these days, including Obamacare and raising taxes. Republicans aren’t lying to us, are they?

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May 30, 2013

Chart: Obama vs. Bush: Private Sector Job Growth (First 52 Months)

There is a lot of Republican right-wing misinformation about the state of the economy and private sector job growth. And breathtaking in their ineptitude are conservatives who believe President Obama is presiding over a net private sector job loss economy. This simply is untrue. I don’t say this because it’s my opinion, I say it because the data gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows net private sector job growth since January 2009 of almost 2.6 million jobs. It’s not something that can be disputed because we have actual data and record keeping. It’s information that anybody can research, but it requires a lot less conjecture and a little more work, which might produce a result that would not comport to right-wing narratives.

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December 7, 2012

Employment Situation: ‘Losing Faith In Humanity’ Edition

When you see an article titled (“73% of New Jobs Created in Last 5 Months Are in Government“) you know you need to take a deep breath and say aloud “serenity now.” Because anybody who has paid attention to the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports over the past months and years knows that the public sector (i.e. “government”) has shed jobs almost every month in the aftermath of the Great Recession. And if you wish to maintain your sanity, I advise you to steer clear of that article’s comments section.

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August 7, 2012

The Facts: Obama vs. Bush On Job Creation

First let’s get this out-of-the-way. Presidents are not job creators. They don’t wave a wand and poof, magically there are millions of new jobs. Presidents can set the tone for policy and they can have a major influence on congressional legislation that can lead to favorable economic conditions for job growth. But this is clearly a much more muddy process than we like to believe when we talk presidents and job creation.

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April 6, 2012

‘Only’ 120,000 Jobs Added In March, But Public Sector Job Losses Continue To Shrink

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 120,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in March. This is the 15th straight month of job gains when combining public and private sector. It is the 25th straight month of private sector job growth. The unemployment rate dropped from 8.3% to 8.2% but this was largely due to people dropping out of the labor market. The breakdown for March is 121,000 private sector jobs added and 1000 public sector jobs lost.

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