Way on Down

Trey Smith

Among the more significant details contained in the [Bureau of Labor Statistics] report was the fall in the “labor force participation rate” — the percentage of Americans 16 years or older who are working or looking for work. This figure fell 0.2 percentage points, to 63.6 percent, the lowest level since 1981. The participation rate for men is 70 percent, its lowest level on records going back to 1948.

The participation rate is a more accurate measure of the jobs crisis, as it takes into account the millions of people who have given up hope of finding work and are not counted as unemployed.

University of Maryland economist Peter Morici noted in a comment published by UPI that, according to the BLS report, “while the ‘non-institutional population’ grew by almost 210,000, the ‘civilian labor force’ shrank — by 340,000…In the weakest recovery since the Great Depression more than four-fifths of the reduction in unemployment has been accomplished by a dropping adult labor force participation rate.”
~ from Systemic Jobs Crisis in the US by Joseph Kishore ~

If you need help in the determination that most national politics during campaign years is a sham, the fact that neither presumptive presidential candidate is talking substantively about the employment crisis should be your first clue! As the figures above clearly show, Main Street America remains in trouble and the problems are growing worse by the month.

You'd never know it by listening to President Obama and you would be led astray by Mitt Romney! For his part, our president keeps pointing at the official unemployment rate which fell by one-tenth to 8.1 percent. Of course, that is false rate as the books have been cooked to exclude those who have given up looking for jobs that aren't there! By deceitfully excluding this key category, the numbers can be made to look rosier than they really are.

Romney is no better. His strategy for reducing labor's downward slide is MORE tax breaks for the egregiously wealthy -- one of the chief reasons that jobs are dwindling -- and a rollback on all sorts of laws that protect workers and the general public.

Neither candidate is paying much attention to the jobs crisis, aside from scoring a few rhetorical points here and there. On this score, a vote for Obama or Romney doesn't make much difference -- neither offers a remedy that will reverse current trends.