04 Oct 2013 No Jobs Report Doesn’t Mean Obama Can Hide Economic Decline

Under normal circumstances, the first Friday morning of every month is when the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its report on the previous month’s employment statistics.

But it’s far from normal circumstances right now in Washington, D.C.  Due to President Obama’s refusal to negotiate with those who seeking reform of the now-tested and obviously failing ObamaCare program forced a government shut down.  The BLS is apparently so far into the non-essential category that, according to its web site, it “will not collect data, issue reports, or respond to public inquiries” as long as the White House refuses to compromise.  At least its web site is working

This lack of a report, in the grand scheme of things, is probably a good thing for Obama.

By most estimates, the news for September is not expected to be good.  For another month, the “U-3” official unemployment rate is projected to be 7.3 percent.  The ADP National Employment Report, a privately-researched analysis, was released earlier this week.  It reported 166,000 jobs were created in the private sector — a few more than last month, but far fewer than the job creation rate at the beginning of the year.

ADP’s report, at least for now, will likely be accepted by some in the business community as well as others as the de facto unemployment report until Obama ends the shut down.  But Obama will still have the plausible deniability that this is not the official report and that it doesn’t count government hires (now likely furloughed) — and not have to accept the blame for a still-stagnant economy.

Project 21 member Derryck Green is not letting the government shut down stop his regular monthly report on Obama economy that coincides with the release of the BLS report.  Derryck, an essential member of the National Center’s black leadership network, remains very skeptical of the Obama Administration’s recovery agenda and it’s commitment to its loyal constituents.

Derryck notes:

It’s a bit of a reprieve — for both President, for me and for the rest of the American people — to not be forced to endure another month’s labor statistics in which the national unemployment rate allegedly went down even though the numbers of Americans who left the workforce went up and to not see the black unemployment rate maintain its position above 13 percent while black teen unemployment remained above 30 percent.

Though we won’t see those numbers on schedule because the government shut down has closed the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most Americans unfortunately have a pretty good idea of what they are, and that they’re still not acceptable.  Not to me, not to them and hopefully not to President Obama.

Government shutdown notwithstanding, the events of last month — based on indicators that are known — still demonstrate that Obama’s economic agenda leaves much to be desired.

Obama’s EPA continues its war on coal, most recently by raising its standards for emissions for coal-fired power plants to a level not yet used in any existing coal-fired power plants.  This severely hampers the construction of new plants and, by extension, the creation of new jobs.

According to a recent White House report entitled “The Financial Crisis: Five Years Later,” less than half of the wealth lost during the recession has yet to be recovered.  Yet we’ve been in an alleged “recovery” since 2009.  But, in a Daily Caller analysis of that report, it’s noted that there is no mention of salaries and wages that have declined for most Americans since 2009.  Nor is there much apparent concern about the workforce participation rate still being under 64 percent — a more than 30-year low.

A recent Census Bureau report noted that, when adjusted for inflation, the average American family earned less in 2012 ($51,107) than it did in 1989 ($51,681).  In fact, since Obama took office, median household income dropped almost five percent.  Based on the number of employers reducing both jobs and employee hours as a result of ObamaCare, that number figures to be even worse in the future. (The Census Bureau report is currently unavailable because the Bureau declared the shutdown prevents them from maintaining even older web pages despite the closed BLS being able to do so.)

The Census Bureau also noted the number of Americans living in poverty increased by 6,667,000 during Obama’s first term in office to total 46,496,000 in 2012 — an increase of almost 17 percent, and totaling 15 percent of the American population.

Again, according to the White House, three of these four years saw America in recovery.

There is a new record of American households on SNAP, reaching 23,116,928 and representing a fifth of all households nationwide (The Agriculture Department is another agency maximizing shutdown pain by pulling down its website).

All of this, and the President still managed to also be played for a fool by Bashir Assad, got chumped by Vladimir Putin and toyed with by Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, in front of the entire world.

Talk about impotent.

It’s apparent that President Obama doesn’t know how to generate an environment to create capital: political or economic.  But he does know how to implement an ideology, regardless of who or how many it hurts.

And Americans continue to suffer, needlessly.  October’s numbers are sure to prove it.