Unemployment impact on American households, February 7, 2013, NY Times reports Rutgers study, Nearly a quarter layed off, Recession all consuming, Real unemployment rate

“With a 63.7% labor force participation, “conditions in the labor market are considerably worse than indicated” in July’s report”…economist Joshua Shapiro, WSJ August 3, 2012

“The United States economy has lost more jobs than it has added since the recovery began over a year ago.”…NY Times Sept. 20, 2010.

“the Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today’s issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston’s job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones.”…George Orwell, “1984″

The following is a decent article from the NY Times except for the fact that it fails to accurately reflect the real unemployment rate. That is, the large number of people who have dropped out of the workforce, i.e., the large drop in the Labor Force Participation Rate.

Where I come from, if you are going to report the truth about unemployment and the impact on American households, you do not omit that important fact.

From the NY Times February 7, 2013.

“Profound Weight of Layoffs Is Seen in Work Trends Survey”
“Layoffs have touched nearly every American household in some fashion over the last few years, according to new survey data to be released Thursday by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

While about 8 percent of Americans are unemployed, nearly a quarter of Americans say they were laid off at some point during the recession or afterward, according to the survey. More broadly, nearly eight in 10 say they know someone in their circle of family and friends who has lost a job.

“This to me is why the recession was so all-consuming and is likely to influence the American psyche,” said Cliff Zukin, a public policy and political science professor at Rutgers and co-author of the report. “Almost everyone, four out of five, were directly or one step removed from unemployment and all that goes with it financially, socially, psychologically.”

The survey presented a bleak view of the economic future.

A majority of Americans say they think it will be at least six years before the economy is made whole again, if ever. Three in 10 said the economy would never fully recover from the Great Recession.

“Despite significant improvements in the nation’s labor market, American workers’ concerns about unemployment, the job market, job security and the future of the economy have not changed much since we conducted a similar survey in August 2010,” the report said.

Just a third of Americans surveyed in this poll, conducted from Jan. 9-16, said they thought the economy would be better next year, the same share that said so two years earlier.

Of those laid off in recent years, nearly a quarter said they still had not found a job. Re-employment rates for older workers have been particularly bad, with nearly two-thirds of unemployed people 55 and older saying they actively sought a job for more than a year before finding one or had still not found work.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/business/profound-weight-of-layoffs-seen-in-survey.html?_r=0

Rutgers University study.

http://www.heldrich.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/content/Work_Trends_February_2013.pdf

Here are a few examples of what could have been added to the report:

“The unemployment rate fell by .2 percent only because the labor force participation rate dropped .2 percent to record lows.”

http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/labor-force-participation-rate-drops-to-record-low-unemployment-still-over-8-percent-2-percent-drop-in-labor-force-lowers-unemployment-rate-white-house-brags/

“Here is the acid test, the bottom line on Obama and the Democrats impact on jobs.

When the Democrats took control of congress in January 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent.

When Obama  took control of the White House in January 2009, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent.

The stated current unemployment rate is 8.3 percent.

That is job creation???

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

And that is not all.

The Labor Force Participation Rate has dropped. If that rate had not dropped, the unemployment rate would have been significantly higher.

When the Democrats took control of congress in January 2007, the Labor Force Participation Rate 66.4 percent.

When Obama took control of the White House in January 2009, the Labor Force Participation Rate was 65.7 percent.

The Labor Force Participation Rate currently is 63.7 percent.”

http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/obama-job-facts-august-5-2012-obama-lies-about-jobs-created-fewer-jobs-since-obama-and-democrats-took-control-higher-unemployment-lower-labor-force-participation/