Americans Aren't Fooled By Job Numbers

The pundits and the media tried to convince everyone that last months unemployment numbers were a cause for celebration. The Labor Department numbers showed that 84,000 jobs had been created and the unemployment rate dropped from 9.1% to 9.0%. Of course these were "false positives", since 84,000 jobs is not even enough jobs to keep up with the number of new workers entering the workforce and the 0.1% drop just meant that more workers have given up trying to find work (and are no longer being counted).

But the American public was not fooled by the "good" numbers. They know that the unemployment situation in this country is still an unmitigated disaster. This is borne out by a recently released Gallup Poll (conducted with a random sample of 1,012 adults nationwide between November 3rd and 6th -- with a margin of error of 4 points).

A full 90% of Americans now say that this is a bad time to be looking for a good job, and only 8% say it is a good time. That 8% is probably corporate executives and business owners (the 1%) -- who are loving the desperate and huge workforce the recession has created. They know people are now willing to work for much lower wages and far fewer benefits.

People weren't thrilled with the job market back in 2007, before the full recession hit. They were already being hurt by the growing corporate outsourcing of good American jobs. Back then, 48% said it was a bad time to be looking for a good job, while 47% said it was a good time. But the current situation makes 2007 look like the "good old days".

The saddest part of the current situation is that nothing is being done by the politicians in Washington to create jobs. The president and some congressional progressives have made some attempts to create a few million jobs and jumpstart the economy, but the Republicans (and their blue dog buddies) have blocked all of those attempts. They want to keep the economy in a mess, in the hope that will work against the president in the next election.

If the president is smart, he will keep sending jobs bills to the Congress, regardless of whether they have a chance of passing or not, and force the Republicans into continually defeating job creation efforts. This will just make the public madder and madder at the Republicans, and they will punish them at the polls in 2012.