Category: Labor

This might be why the world economy is in the pooper

As I just wrote, the world economy is in the dumper.

Well, this here might be why; via HotAir.com:

Looks like the 2015Q4 GDP results told a broader story than some credited. The Associated Press called the results from today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report “a sharp deceleration from recent months” (later removing “sharp” from that description), paralleling the sharper deceleration of production. The US economy added only 151,000 jobs, a miss on expectations and barely enough to tread water on population expansion:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 151,000 in January, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in several industries, led by retail trade, food services and drinking places, health care, and manufacturing. Employment declined in private educational services, transportation and warehousing, and mining.

Numerous news services heralded the a drop in U-3 rate of unemployment to 4.9%, but the number of people not in the workforce also rose by 360,000 people from last month (table A-16). That follows an increase of 284,000 the previous month. Those not in the labor force who want a job increased by 461,000, and that follows an increase of 379,000 in the previous month. The latter measure had been falling in 2015, but has reversed itself by 840,000 in two months — both in the 0.7%-growth-rate Q4. [see update above]

Needless to say, this leaves the workforce participation rates near their historic lows:

After accounting for the annual adjustments to the population controls, the civilian labor force and total employment, as measured by the household survey, were little changed in January. The labor force participation rate, at 62.7 percent, was little changed. The employment-population ratio (59.6 percent) changed little over the month but was up by 0.3 percentage point since October.

The U-3 rate dipped down to 4.9%, but that appears to be a rounding issue more than a significant shift. The broader U-6 rate remained at 9.9%, where it has been for three straight months after briefly dipping down to 9.8% in October. For comparison, October was the first time since May 2008 that U-6 scored under double digits, and the U-3 rate in May 2008 was 5.4% while the workforce participation rates were 66.1% and 62.5%, respectively.

My apologies to the gang at HotAir.com for quoting the crap out of their article. But, this is warranted. There’s more:

Update (Steve Eggleston): I have a couple quick points. First, on the “not in labor force” front, it is a seasonal phenomenon related to year-end retirements, and in the case of January, the implementation of new population controls. While the 360,000 additional people not in the workforce compared to December (on a not-seasonally-adjusted basis) is a larger add than the last couple years, it is actually lower than the average December-to-January change since 2000.

The future isn’t very bright. The January Challenger report released yesterday noted that announced job cuts surged to 75,114, the highest monthly total since July 2015 and the highest January total since 2009. The report also noted that there were 8,362 announced hiring plans last month, the 2nd-lowest January total going back to 2011.

Donald Trump might be a bit too populist for some and might be seen as a loose cannon by many. However, there is one thing that he is absolutely right about and that is that we are not on a good path as a Nation and because of that, we are dragging the World economy down with us. Something has to change and there are many disagreements about what is to change and how it is to change. However, the one clear fact that I believe everyone can and will agree on is that the path that we have been on, in this Country, for these may years, dating back to the beginning of the George W. Bush Administration and maybe even the Bill Clinton Administration; cannot continue. Otherwise, the United States of America is going to find itself in a very bad place.

Here is hoping that there are people elected that can figure this out and make the needed changes, without causing many innocent people to suffer as a result.

U.S. adds 173,000 jobs in August, unemployment at 5.1%

I guess this is supposed to be good news:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The U.S. economy created a modest 173,000 new jobs in August to mark the smallest gain in five months, but the unemployment rate fell to 5.1% from 5.3%, the government said Friday. That’s the lowest level since April 2008. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a gain of 213,000 nonfarm jobs. On the more positive side, employment gains for July and June were revised up by a combined 44,000. The Labor Department said 245,000 new jobs were created in July instead of 215,000. June’s gain was revised up to 245,000 from 231,000.

Source: U.S. gains 173,000 jobs in August; unemployment 5.1% – MarketWatch

To be honest, until I see massive hiring everywhere, for good paying jobs and some protection for people like me; who haven’t had a job in ages — I really do not feel this news to be of merit. I haven’t worked since 2003 and had a long term job since 2000. So, this news means nothing.

Not to mention that the growth is paltry.

 

Anti-Union blowhard Senator Bob Corker “I am Anti-UAW”

This blowhard son-of-a-bitch makes my skin want to crawl. 😡

The Video:

http://youtu.be/67oiZo2FP8g

The Story via the Corner:

The United Automobile Workers’ failure to form a union at a Chattanooga, Tenn., Volkswagen plant after two years of organizing efforts was a result welcomed by Senator Bob Corker. Corker, who vocally opposed unionization throughout the process, has been the target of criticism by pro-union activists for weighing in on the situation. On Wednesday, he continued his outspokenness on the matter.

“I’m not anti-union — I’m anti-UAW because of all the destruction they’ve done to jobs in our country and what they’re about,” Corker, who previously served as mayor of Chattanooga, told Fox News. “This was all about money.”

Last week, workers at the Volkswagen plant rejected joining the union. Had it been successful, it would have been the first foreign-owned plant to have been organized by the UAW.

As the son of a General Motors worker and UAW Member; I happen to think that the citizens of the great State of Tennessee need to become Anti-Corker. Because anyone that thinks that the UAW was the sole cause of Detroit’s decline, or is solely responsible for the decline in American manufacturing, is obviously too stupid to drive a car, much less be a Senator in Congress.

Wal-Mart lays off employees, possibly union protesters?

This is an interesting headline:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it’s eliminating 2,300 workers at its Sam’s Club division as it reduces the ranks of middle managers in a bid to be more nimble. 

The layoffs, which cut 2 percent of the membership club’s U.S. employee count of about 116,000, mark the largest since 2010 when the Sam’s Club unit laid off 10,000 workers as it moved to outsource food demonstrations at its stores. 

The cuts come as Sam’s Club strives to compete better with Costco Wholesale Corp. and online players like Amazon.com’s Prime membership service. They also follow layoffs announced by several other major retailers in recent weeks that include Macy’s Inc., J.C. Penney and Target Corp. 

Bill Durling, a spokesman at Sam’s Club, says that a little less than half of the cuts were aimed at salaried assistant managers. The cuts are also eliminating some hourly workers. He says that each of the clubs had roughly the same number of workers regardless of how much revenue each store generated. 

“We felt this was the right move to make sure we are positioning ourselves for growing in the future,” said Durling in an interview with The Associated Press. “We are trying to rebalance our resources in the field to make sure we are investing in the clubs that have the higher growth potential and balancing resources across the chain.” 

via Wal-Mart to cut 2,300 workers from Sam’s Club stores – NBC News.com.

I would be willing to bet a shiny dollar bill that the company went around and found out, who, that were employed by the store; was protesting the store for the unions and laid their butts off. Serves them right for doing something so darned stupid, as trying to get a union in a place like Wal-Mart.

Service sector unions are good for one thing and one thing only. Causing hate and discontent among employees and putting a burden on business owners and sometimes employees too. I ought to know, I worked for Meijer’s back in the 1990’s and you talk about an abortion job of a place. You could not do anything without management’s approval and the union’s approval. It was terrible and I was happy the day that I told that crapola of a place, to take that silly minimum wage job and shove it.

I ended up going to a place that paid twice as much and did not have nearly as many problems as Meijer’s did. Needless to say, I was quite happy to get the heck out of that place! In fact, the only reason why I shop at this local Meijer’s here near my house; is that it is the closest place to shop; not because I happen to believe that the place is really that great.

You go in there on a Holiday and shop? You will wait for two freaking hours to get to a register. Why? Because the unions force Meijer’s to pay their employees higher the minimum wage; despite the fact that most of them are dumber than a box of rocks and that they are the slowest bunch of employees; who really do not get in a hurry to do anything at all. Anyhow, the managers will only open like 4 or 5 checkout lanes, instead of opening all of them. Why? Because they know they will have to pay all of them employees, despite their lousy job performance.

If you work in a steel mill or an automotive factory; then yes, have a union. But, if you are working in a service industry, like Meijer’s, Wal-Mart or some other retail or fast foot outlet; do your job, shut the hell up and be glad you got a damn job — and don’t whine about it either or go find a better job! That’s how America works, been that way since I was working and was that way long before I ever started working.

….and that — is all.

 

The “Ford is adding jobs” story is a fraud

This story here is nothing more than a big, fat, fraud:

Dearborn — Ford Motor Co. plans to add 5,000 U.S. jobs in 2014 as it prepares to launch 16 new vehicles in North America, the most in any one year of the automaker’s 111-year history.

About 3,300 will be salaried positions in the Southeast Michigan area. The remaining 1,700 will be hourly hires spread out throughout the country. Seven North American plants will add capacity or get a new product next year.

Ford will introduce next-generations of its F-150 pickup truck and Mustang car and add a compact Lincoln MKC to its lineup in 2014, along with a new Transit van.

Ford had five North American vehicle launches in 2013.

via Ford to add 5,000 jobs in 2014 | The Detroit News.

Okay, here is why this story is nothing more than a big, fat, fraud. One reason is because before they allow any new hires in, the union will tell Ford; “You have to bring back any laid off people, before you hire from the outside.” Second of all, if you do not have a high school diploma, or at least a 2 year degree; you will not get hired at all. Actually, Ford likes to see at least 2 years of manufacturing experience before they will even remotely look at your application.

So, the idea that Ford is just going to hire people off the street is a nothing more than a big, fat, propaganda lie. How do I know this? My Father is a retired G.M. worker and they have been doing the same thing for years.

Nice try though.

UPDATE: I just wanted to say thanks to the person on Facebook, who sent me the ton of traffic. I really don’t know who you are and I can’t really find out because my logs don’t say what page on Facebook that the links are coming from.

However, just the same thank you very much. Traffic around here has been kinda light, because for one thing its the off season there’s no election and too, I think people are just tired of reading about politics.

Again, whoever you are I think you very much and I hope you send people links to my site more often on your page.

Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report

This is not a terribly big shock to me; just look who is in the White House. This administration and Government is rife with corruption. I believe if this Government released the true numbers of unemployment in this Country; this stock market would crash and there would be a run on the banks of epic proportions.

The Story:

In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington.

The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated.

And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it.

Just two years before the presidential election, the Census Bureau had caught an employee fabricating data that went into the unemployment report, which is one of the most closely watched measures of the economy.

And a knowledgeable source says the deception went beyond that one employee — that it escalated at the time President Obama was seeking reelection in 2012 and continues today.

“He’s not the only one,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous for now but is willing to talk with the Labor Department and Congress if asked.

The Census employee caught faking the results is Julius Buckmon, according to confidential Census documents obtained by The Post. Buckmon told me in an interview this past weekend that he was told to make up information by higher-ups at Census.

Ironically, it was Labor’s demanding standards that left the door open to manipulation.

Labor requires Census to achieve a 90 percent success rate on its interviews — meaning it needed to reach 9 out of 10 households targeted and report back on their jobs status.

Census currently has six regions from which surveys are conducted. The New York and Philadelphia regions, I’m told, had been coming up short of the 90 percent.

via Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report | New York Post.

Blogger roundup Via Memeorandum:  Business Insider, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, AEIdeas, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys,Washington Times, “The Lid”, Right Wing News, VodkaPundit, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler and National Review

Updated with Video: Republicans and Democrats on the hill stand against the Trans Pacific Partnership

Update: Here is video on the subject regarding a leak by Wikileaks on the text of this monstrous thing: (H/T Democracy Now)

For once there is something that the President is trying to get accomplished, that the Democrats and Republicans in Congress are actually standing against. For once, this is a very good thing.

This comes via Mother Jones:

The Obama administration is nearing the end of negotiations on the biggest free trade deal in US history, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The stakes are high: The pact affects the United States and 11 other countries, domestic policy areas ranging from intellectual property rights to product safety and environmental regulations, and $26 trillion in annual economic output. But in order to secure the deal, President Barack Obama says he wants Congress to grant him permission to sign the final trade agreement, which Congress has not yet seen, without congressional input. A coalition of about 174 conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats in the House signaled this week they would likely vote against giving those trade powers to the president.

The US trade representative Michael Froman and Obama want to finalize the TPP by the end of the year and are pushing Congress to pass legislation soon that grants the president something called fast-track authority, which would allow him to sign the final trade agreement without Congress making any amendments to the pact. If Obama gets what he wants, Congress may not even be able to read the final version of the massive trade deal in its entirety until after lawmakers have signed away their rights to influence it. At that point, the two chambers will only be allowed an up-or-down vote to implement the international pact into domestic law. The administration says fast-track authority will assure other countries that the deal the United States has committed to after three years of negotiations won’t be dismantled by American lawmakers who dislike some of the provisions. No major trade agreement has been finalized without it.

[…]

Many conservative Republicans—usually fans of free trade—feel the same way. “For two hundred years of our nation’s history, Congress led our nation’s trade policy,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and 22 Republicans in the House wrote in a letter sent to the president Tuesday. “However, recent presidents have seized Congress’ constitutional trade authority and also ‘diplomatically legislated’…using…’Fast Track.’”

“Conservatives have shown themselves to instinctively oppose anything coming out of the Obama White House. So their opposition is not surprising,” Adam Hersh, a trade expert at the liberal Center for American Progress, says in an email. But he adds that the Democratic opposition is new. “We’re seeing the culmination of dissatisfaction with persistent poor trading outcomes for the US economy” such as job outsourcing, he says, and the feeling that Congress has been “kept in the dark.

Rod Dreher, of whom I owe the hat tip to for reporting this story on his blog says:

Trust him? No. It’s not about Obama personally; Congress gave fast-track authority to Bill Clinton, and to George W. Bush. But the House Democrats who oppose this — and the overwhelming majority of the opponents are Dems — say. Establishment Republicans tend to support fast-track authority, but some Tea Partiers are standing with the Dems.

[….]

I’m willing to hear the counterarguments, but in general, I’m not in favor of giving this or any president the authority to approve something so enormous and consequential without Congress even seeing it. I could be wrong, but it seems that we’ve had enough trusting political and business elites always to operate in the best interests of the American people.

I feel the same way; this is not about Obama personally. However, it is about policies that undermine the sovereignty of the United States of America and literally it is about policies that put the screws to the American worker. We have enough “free trade” deals in this Country as it is; and they are quite literally draining this Country of its GDP. People want to know why there are no jobs in this Country? This is why! Because crony capitalists and the political elites who protect them; would rather manufacture products overseas on the cheap, instead of giving an American worker a living wage.

This is something that we have to stop and reverse at all costs, if we are ever going to be able to put America back as the manufacturing mecca that it once was.

Jobs? What Jobs?!?!

(H/T Insty)

Saith Megan McArdle:

The unemployment rate has fallen, but keep the cork in the champagne bottles: it’s falling because people are just giving up looking for work. The share of the population that is either working, or looking for work, has fallen to a 35-year low. The economy created just 169,000 jobs last month, barely more than we need to keep up with population growth. It’s nowhere near enough to absorb the people who have been out of work for months or years — what Karl Marx called the reserve army of the unemployed. No wonder fast-food workers are demonstrating for higher wages; jobs designed as supplementary income for kids, or housewives, are now being taken by breadwinners who can’t find anything else.. . .

Here’s the really bad news: The weak economy may be accelerating the rate at which older workers exit the labor market. Thanks to changes in Social Security benefits (and the entry of women into the workforce), labor force participation rates among those over 55 have been trending upwards since the 1990s. But since the recession, that progress has plateaued. Older workers are actually less likely to be out of work than their younger counterparts (probably in part because they’re clinging to jobs in order to make up big losses in their retirement accounts). But if they do end up out of work, they have a much more difficult time finding new jobs.

That doesn’t just bode ill for the present; it also promises lower growth for the future. There is no ray of sunshine to be found in this jobs report. The best thing you can say about it is that it wasn’t worse.

Fun part is, we got three more years of this crap. 🙄

Of course, it’s pretty damned hard to get even get a job; when you have racist blacks accusing whites of racism and making up stories to get you fired —– and have companies afraid of lawsuits.  Something that I know all about. 😡