Sometimes I almost feel sorry for the administration. I feel sorrier for us, of course, but sometimes it seems like the administration has its own little Gore Effect that it just can’t shake.
I especially liked Geithner’s assurance in August that job losses would be slowing, a claim quickly undermined by September’s employment numbers.
In general, BTW, I think the utility of The Chart (i.e., the chart comparing the Obama administration’s unemployment predictions to reality) is fading. What we need to be hammering on now is the actual number of jobs lost. Just looking at the graph above puts the lie to their claims that the stimulus package is having any significant effect.
How about total jobs lost since January?? Show each month and the totals on the same graph. . . powerful stuff you’ll never see on the alphabet networks.
How dare you speak ill of The Chart. I hope you have triangle-themed nightmares for the next week.
But it’s worse that it appears.
The Labor Dept adds phantom jobs during the year to account for those that it thinks weren’t reported (“births”) and then subtracts “deaths” in January … next to be reported Feb 5, 2010 .. when we can expect employment to tank.
Since I have teenage kids entering the labor market, I was wondering how these individuals were factored into the unemployment number. Due to the scarcity of jobs, they have not been hired yet so they do not show up as being unemployeed. Are they part of the group that is reported as not being able to find work so they move off the unemployment rolls. I was also wondering what your job loss graph would look like if we factored in the fact that our labor pool is growing since our population continues to grow.
^according to Obama, they probably would be ignored.