Shocking Numbers That Show The Media Is Lying To You About Unemployment In America

by Michael Snyder

Did you know that the percentage of the U.S. labor force that is employed has continually been falling since 2006 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics?  Did you know that the increase in the number of Americans "not in the labor force" during Barack Obama's first four years in the White House was more than three times greaterthan the increase in the number of Americans "not in the labor force" during the entire decade of the 1980s?

The mainstream media would have us believe that 157,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in January.  Based on that news, the Dow broke the 14,000 barrier for the first time since October 2007.  But if you actually look at the "non-seasonally adjusted" numbers, the number of Americans with a job actually decreased by 1,446,000 between December and January.  But nowhere in the mainstream media did you hear that the U.S. economy lost more than 1.4 million jobs between December and January.

It is amazing the things that you can find out when you actually take the time to look at the hard numbers instead of just listening to the media spin. Back in 2007, more than 146 million Americanswere employed.  Today, only 141.6 million Americans are employed even though our population has grown steadily since then.  When the government and the media tell you that we are in a "recovery" and that unemployment is lower than it was a couple of years ago, I encourage you to dig deeper.

The truth is that even the government's own numbers tell us that the percentage of the U.S. labor force that is employed continues to fall and that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession.  The Obama administration and the media have been lying to you about unemployment and about the true condition of our economy.  After you see the numbers that I have compiled in this article, I think that you will agree with me.

First of all, let's take a look at the percentage of the civilian labor force that has been employed over the past several years.  These numbers come directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  As you can see, this is a number that has been steadily falling since 2006...

2006: 63.1
2007: 63.0
2008: 62.2
2009: 59.3
2010: 58.5
2011: 58.4

In January, only 57.9 percent of the civilian labor force was employed.

Do the numbers above represent a positive trend or a negative trend?

Even a 2nd grader could answer that question.

So how in the world can the Obama administration and the mainstream media claim that the employment picture is getting better and that we are in a "recovery"?

But most Americans believe what they are told.  It is almost as if we are in some kind of a "matrix" where reality is defined by the corporate-controlled propaganda that is relentlessly pumped into our brains.

The only way that the government has been able to show a declining unemployment rate is by dumping massive numbers of Americans into the "not in the labor force" category.
Just check out how the number of Americans "not in the labor force" has absolutely skyrocketed in recent years...

2006: 77,387,000
2007: 78,743,000
2008: 79,501,000
2009: 81,659,000
2010: 83,941,000
2011: 86,001,000

In January, there were supposedly 89,868,000 Americans that were at least 16 years of age that were not in the labor force.

That number has risen by more than 8 million since Barack Obama first entered the White House, and that is highly unusual, because the number of Americans "not in the labor force" only increased by 2,518,000 during the entire decade of the 1980s.

You sure can get the numbers to look more "favorable" if you pretend that millions upon millions of American workers simply "don't want a job" any longer.  The truth is that if the labor force participation rate was at the same level it was at when Barack Obama was first elected, the official unemployment rate would be well above 10 percent.

But that wouldn't do at all, would it?  7.9 percent sounds so much nicer.

And of course even if you do have a job that does not mean that you are doing okay.

If you can believe it, in America today 41 percent of all workers make $20,000 a year or less.

To me, that is a mind blowing statistic.  It would be incredibly challenging for anyone to live on $20,000 a year, much less try to support a family.

If you live in Washington D.C. or New York City and you have a "good job" working for the establishment, you may not realize it, but there are tens of millions of American families that are really hurting out there.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americansare either "poor" or "low income" at this point, and most of those people actually do have jobs.

For much more on the "working poor" in the United States, please see my previous article entitled "35 Statistics About The Working Poor In America That Will Blow Your Mind".

If something is not done, the middle class will continue to disappear and poverty in America will continue to explode.

In a previous article, I noted that during Obama's first term, the number of Americans on food stamps increased by an average of about 11,000 per day.

How bad do things have to get before people realize that we are living through a nightmare?

Most Americans are still convinced that our politicians will somehow find a way to turn things around.
Most Americans will gather around their television sets this weekend and watch the Super Bowl and laugh at all the funny commercials without even thinking about how America is literally falling apart all around them.

But there is one group of Americans that is acutely aware of how bad things have really gotten.  Small businesses have traditionally been the primary engine of job growth in this country, but right now small business owners all over the nation are facing a tremendous crisis.

Millions of small businesses are on the verge of extinction, and yet our politicians just continue to pile on more taxes, more rules and more regulations.

A recent Gallup poll found that 61 percent of all small business owners in America are "worried about the potential cost of healthcare", and that an astounding 30 percent of all small business owners in America are not hiring and fear that they will go out of business within the next 12 months.

In a previous article entitled "We Are Witnessing The Death Of Small Business In America", I detailed how small businesses in America are being systematically wiped out.  Small businesses are dying all around us, and the number of new small businesses continues to decline.

According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how the decline in the number of start-up jobs per one thousand Americans breaks down by presidential administration...

Bush Sr.: 11.3
Clinton: 11.2
Bush Jr.: 10.8
Obama: 7.8

Is that a good trend or a bad trend?

All of this is so simple that even the family pet should be able to figure it out, and yet most Americans seem oblivious to all of this.  They just keep gobbling up the mainstream media propaganda and they just continue to go out and wildly spend money.

It is almost as if we didn't learn any lessons from 2008.

Even while household spending in Europe has moderated, household spending in the United States continues to soar.  Just check out the chart in this article.

And guess what?  The infamous "no money down mortgages" are back.  If we wait long enough, perhaps "interest only mortgages" will make a comeback as well.

Unfortunately, I am afraid that time is running out.  We have been living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world, and it is only a matter of time until it bursts.

2008 was just a "hiccup" compared to what is coming.  Our politicians and the Federal Reservewere able to keep the house of cards from completely crashing down back then, but they are not going to be able to avert the economic horror show that is rapidly approaching.

I hope that you are getting prepared.  Back in 2008, millions of Americans suddenly lost their jobs, and because many of them did not have any savings, many of them suddenly lost their homes.  One of the most important things that you can do to prepare for the coming crisis is to build up an emergency fund.  If things suddenly go bad, you don't want to lose your house and everything that you have always worked for.


In addition, anything that you can do to become more self-sufficient and more independent of the system is a good thing, because the system is failing.  The years ahead are going to be much more chaotic than what we are experiencing right now, and when the next crisis strikes you will be very thankful for the time and the energy that you put into preparing.

So what are all of you seeing in your own areas?

Are businesses shutting down?

Are people having a hard time finding good jobs?

Original Post @ http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/shocking-numbers-that-show-media-is.html

Unemployment Rate Facts, Mainstream Media and Our Governments “Big Lie” Video

The mainstream media is heralding the decline of the official unemployment rate to 7.7 percent as evidence that the U.S. economy is improving. 

But that is a giant lie.  The truth is that unemployment in America is not actually going down. 

The percentage of working age Americans with a job actually dropped slightly in November.

During the last recession, the percentage of working age Americans with a job fell from about 63 percent to under 59 percent and it has stayed there for 39 months in a row. 

In September 2009, during the depths of the last economic crisis, 58.7 percent of all working age Americans were employed. 

In November 2012, 58.7 percentof all working age Americans were employed.  It is more then 3 years later, and we are in the exact same place!

So how in the world are they able to pretend that the “unemployment rate” is going down steadily?  Well, they get there by pretending that hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers “leave the labor force” each month. 

According to the government, another 350,000 Americans left the labor force during November, and when you keep pretending that huge chunks of workers “disappear” each month it is easy to get the “unemployment rate” to go down. 

But any idiot can see that there is something really funny about these numbers.  Barack Obama has been president for less than four years, and during that time the number of Americans “not in the labor force” has increased by nearly 8.5 million. 

Something seems really “off” about that number, because during the entire decade of the 1980s the number of Americans “not in the labor force” only rose by about 2.5 million.  At this point the official unemployment rate is so manipulated that it is of very little value at all.  Source: Michael Snyder

If you listen to Mainstream Media, you probably think thinks are starting to turn around unemployment is falling and the economy must be picking up right?  They are very positive that the “unemployment rate” has fallen from its peak of 10.0 percent in October 2009 to 7.7 percent now…

If unemployment was going down, people going back into the work force should be going up Right?

Unfortunately, that is NOT happening.

As was mentioned above, the “employment rate” fell below 59 percent during the last economic crisis and it has stayed there for 39 consecutive months…

So Mainstream Media all telling Americans that the employment situation getting better is just a load of nonsense.  The percentage of Americans with a job has stayed very, very steady since the end of 2009. Employment activity is in a stalemate.

It is also very interesting that the government revised the “job gains” for September and October downward in their recent Report.

The government revised down job gains for September and October by a total 49,000. September’s additions were revised from 148,000 to 132,000 and October’s, from 171,000 to 138,000.
The positive unemployment reports that were released prior to Obama’s re-election, turned out to be another Mainstream Media lie. 
We all know that the mainstream media is nothing more than a propaganda tool used by the global elite to control the thoughts and perceptions of the citizens 

The truth is that it takes somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with the growth of the population. 

What sector is “creating” these new jobs?

According to  this report 73% of new jobs created in last 5 months are created by the government, 

Does the government create real wealth?

No, Real wealth is only created by the private sector.

It would be very nice if I could report a major employment turnaround, but it simply is not happening.

Instead, we continue to see an increase in the number of Americans living in poverty.

Reports like this show things are not improving, organizations like the Salvation Armyseeing record numbers of families coming to them for help this holiday season?

 If you think things are going to improve as we go forward see this article Americans are delusional and in denial on the fiscal cliff and a constitution in crisis with video

Unfortunately a increasing number of Americans find themselves forced to turn to the government for assistance, and the cost of caring for all of them has become extremely expensive…

According to the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee, welfare spending per day per household in poverty is $168, which is higher than the $137 median income per day. When broken down per hour, welfare spending per hour per household in poverty is $30.60, which is higher than the $25.03 median income per hour.

But if you think that things are bad now, brace yourself, it appears that things are going to get even worse in beyond 2013
As an example, how much worse will things get if a fiscal cliff deal is not reached and millions more Americans find themselves in desperate need of help?  According to ABC News, more than 3 million Americans will lose unemployment benefits by the beginning of April if Congress does not do something to avoid the “Fiscal Cliff”

Millions of unemployed Americans have another reason to worry about “fiscal cliff” budget talks that seek to avoid looming tax increases and dire spending cuts come January.
About 2.1 million people will stop receiving jobless benefits immediately if Congress doesn’t reauthorize federal unemployment insurance programs by year’s end. Another 1 million will lose benefits over the first three months of 2013.

2013 looks like it is already shaping up to be a very tough year.

But what the mainstream media is not really talking about is how the middle class is systematically being destroyed or about how our once great manufacturing cities are being turned into desolate wastelands.

They just want us all to be happy, but the cold, hard reality of the matter is that the U.S. economy no longer produces enough jobs for everybody and it never produce enough jobs again.

But the truth is both political parties have fully embraced the emerging one world economic system which puts average American workers into direct competition for jobs with workers in third world countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.

Millions of good paying American jobs have been shipped to countries where workers work very long hours in absolutely terrible conditions for as little as 45 dollars a month.

Are Americans willing to work for 45 dollars a month?

Meanwhile, Americans that still do have jobs appear to be piling up more debt than ever before.  It seems that most Americans still have not learned any lessons from the last major economic crisis.  It has just been reported that consumer borrowing in the U.S. has hit yet a new record high…

Americans swiped their credit cards more often in October and borrowed more to attend school and buy cars. The increases drove U.S. consumer debt to an all-time high.
The Federal Reserve said Friday that consumers increased their borrowing by $14.2 billion in October from September. Total borrowing rose to a record $2.75 trillion.

Isn’t that lovely?

And of course the largest borrower in the world is our federal government.  They just keep borrowing money as if there was no tomorrow.

During the first two months of fiscal year 2013, the U.S. gov’t has run a deficit of $292 billion dollars ($57 billion worse than last year) and during that time the government borrowed an average of $4.8 billion dollars a day.

30 years ago, the U.S. national debt was about 1.1 trillion dollars.

Now it is more than 16.3 trillion dollars. With 6 trillion pilling on since Obama took office on Jan 20th 2009 alone.

To get an idea how much money 16 trillion dollars is, just watch this 2 minute video.

Can America really be this foolish?

Yes, much of America may still be experiencing “prosperity” right now.  But it is a prosperity that has been fueled by the greatest debt bubble that the world has ever seen.

This Debt bubble will burst and when that debt bubble bursts the pain is going to be unbelievable.

If you actually believe that America is going to prosper in the years to come, you are just fooling yourself.

Our economy is declining and has been declining for quite some time.  If you doubt this, just read this: “34 Signs That America Is In Decline“.

So that is the bad news.

But their is some good news, that is even though the entire nation is not going to prosper, there will be many Americans that will have prepared and that will have gotten themselves into position to take advantage of what is coming.

During the coming crisis a massive amount of money and wealth will change hands.  Instead of living in fear and cowering under a blanket, now is the time to prepare and figure out how you and your family can thrive during the hard times that are on the horizon.

During the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, there were many people that actually did amazingly well.  So don’t lose hope just because the U.S. economy is headed for disaster.

Everything that can be shaken will be shaken.  But if you understand what is happening and you prepare for it, the times that are coming can actually be a great adventure and a great blessing for you and your family.

But if you keep your head stuck in the sand and have blind faith in the system and pretend that everything is going to be okay somehow, then you will bedevastated by the coming crisis and you will only have yourself to blame. 

Original post @ http://beforeitsnews.com/economy/2012/12/unemployment-rate-facts-mainstream-media-and-our-governments-big-lie-video-2469546.html