Article: The Song Remains the Same

Bamboo bridge
(Image by Yang Ming.com) Details DMCA

Bamboo bridge by Yang Ming.com

Soon we shall hold the non-election, to decide between the two major non-candidates based on their positions on the non-issues. Lots and lots of amorphous talk, little about reality and none about sequestration. Hard talk is for after the election, looking at Greece and what austerity has done to her people; one can only hold our heads and weep for the future.

Another thirty days has passed and the BLS this morning released its monthly jobs report. It's almost lost its thrill, settling into a monthly rehash of filtered numbers, take for instance, Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 171,000 this month, while the numbers of workers entering the workforce increased by 578,000 so from the get go, we're down 400,000 jobs. In a calendar year the number of Americans employed, rose by just over three million while at the same time the number of Americans entering the workforce seeking a job increased by 3,714,000.

Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes its jobs report and you can't blame them, really, for trying to put the best face on it. Each month, the report lists the number of new jobs created without supplying context. The unemployment rate ticked up 0.1 this month which is referred to as;

"Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 171,000 in October, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade."

But unemployment was changed, it went up 0.1 percent, if the number had gone down 0.1 percent the administration would jolly well be shouting it from the rooftops, as proof positive, their economic policies were working. Most of this months job gains came as follows,

Professional and business service - 51,000
Health Care -- 31,000
Services to buildings and dwellings -- 13,000 (what a strange category)
Computers systems design -- 7000
Retail trade -- 36,000
Construction -- 17,000

From the BLS report -- "Mining lost 9,000 jobs in October, with most of the decline occurring in support activities for mining. Since May of this year, employment in mining has decreased by 17,000.

Employment in other major industries, including wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and government, showed little change over the month."

"Little change," four years of little change, but there is some change.

Self employed workers, unincorporated -- October 2011, 873,000 and this October, 758,000

Part time for economic reasons -- October 2011, 8,258,000 and this October, 8,344,000.

Could only find Part time work -- October 2011, 2,488,000 and this October, 2,614,000.

The U-6 unemployment rate dropped from 16% last October to 14.6% this October.

Officially, the shiny official polished number of unemployed stands at 12,258,000 this month, officially this month, a population larger than every man, women and child in Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas / Fort Worth combined, are seeking a job in the United States, but that is not all, it couldn't be? You see there is another sub set (read that, untermunchin) another population not counted as unemployed.

From the BLS report -- "In October, 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, little different from a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey."

So some quick addition finds the ranks of the unemployed actually stands at 14.6 million, plus the additional 1.6 million entering the labor force this year. They proclaim 171,000 new jobs yet the number of Americans (officially) unemployed this month also rose by 170,000, it is a wash.

Last month, those without a high school or College diploma were the largest group finding employment. This month it's the opposite, College degree or better unemployment declined from 4.1 % to 3.8%. At the same time those without a College education also saw a 0.3% decline in unemployment. This month, those with less than a High School diploma saw unemployment spike almost a full percentage point while those with just some college had the best results overall their unemployment rate declining by 0.4 %. What does it all mean?

It means, if you found a job this month you were just lucky. It means, the chances that this job was the job of your dreams are slim and none. It means, for every available job found in the United States this month, there were 85 unemployed Americans. That is the truth, it is non-partisan and non-fattening. Of those many millions unemployed, over five million have been unemployed for six month or longer. They make up forty percent of the unemployed, many are over skilled and over aged, why hire a fifty year old when you can hire a nineteen years old?

Because this month like most months, there was little change,

From the BLS -- "In October, average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls edged down by 1 cent to $23.58. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.6 percent. In October, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and non-supervisory employees edged down by 1 cent to $19.79. "

The number of hours worked in seventeen employment categories declined or stayed the same in all but one. The number of categories which the number of hours worked fell was thirteen. You just can't put make up on this pig, you just can't pretty this up. Wages are falling across the board made even more severe by shorter hours worked.

From the BLS - Employer Cost Trends

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)
September 11, 2012

Private industry employers spent an average of $28.80 per hour worked for employee compensation in June 2012. Wages and salaries averaged $20.27 and benefits averaged $8.52, of which retirement and savings plans averaged $1.02 per hour worked.

International Labor Comparisons

Mexico - $6.23
China - $1.36
India, $1.17
Philippines - $1.90

So as you enter the non-polling booth to support the non-candidate of your non-choice, remember these numbers. Remember that both non-candidates from both major non-parties fully support free trade agreements. They fully understand all of the ramifications of what it means to remove a job from this country and to place it where they can make the most money.

In turn, both political non-parties point the finger of blame at each other blaming labor unions or health care or environment regulations but it is only greed. To quite literally sell their own country and their own people down the river for money.

Definition of Treason from Merriam -- Webster
1: the betrayal of a trust: treachery

2: the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family

From the Middle English tresoun, from Anglo-French traisun, from Latin tradition-, traditio "act of handing over," from tradere to hand over, betray

"And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of the dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on." -- John Steinbeck