The Washington Examiner has an excellent editorial dissecting the latest unemployment numbers. As we all know, January’s unemployment rate fell to 9.7%. Of course these are preliminary numbers and it is clear from past experience that the truth is not likely to be so rosy. But assuming that this latest report is accurate, facts behind the overall number are not encouraging. According to the Examiner:
“The number of new jobs is actually declining. Total nonfarm payroll
employment, for example, dipped by an additional 20,000 positions after
a December decline of 150,000 positions.”
“The percent of the unemployed who are out of work for 27 weeks or more exceeded 41%, an all-time high.”
“the labor force participation rate is the lowest since mid-1985.” And here’s the kicker:
“The federal civil service is rapidly expanding as Obama increases the
size of government, with 33,000 new positions being added in January
alone. Only 9,000 of those new slots were for temporary census jobs.”
As I have pointed out here and here, the stimulus package cannot create on net any new employment opportunities. All it can do is destroy jobs in one place and transfer them to another, i.e., to the government itself or to government subsidized industries (can you say green jobs?). So all this proves is that the Obama administration cannot defy gravity–or the economic laws of scarcity and opportunity costs.
