While everyone was conveniently distracted by the epic clash of the Titans between Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics quietly released its monthly data on workforce participation.
And it’s disastrous for our nation. You can say this much about the Obama economy, it consistently sets new records. All of them bad.
The Obama economy has sent health care insurance prices skyrocketing, decimated our military preparedness through massive spending slashes, and with 50 million Americans now on the federal food stamp (SNAP) program we’re, at a post-Depression era high. America now has record numbers of children living in poverty and Americans living at or beneath the poverty line. Obama has broadened the income inequality gap, and month-after-month the Obama economy breaks its OWN previous month’s record for workforce participation lows.
As is customary for this administration, news which may shine a less-than-positive light on the president’s performance is released on Fridays (which is to say that virtually all economic data is released by this administration on Fridays) so the news hits the headlines over the weekend while Americans are distracted, thus softening the lousy news’ impact. Friday August 7th, was no exception.
The BLS reported that 93,770,000 people (16 and older) were neither employed last month nor had made specific efforts to find work the prior four weeks. The number of people outside the workforce in July increased 144,000 over the previous record. That would beat June’s record of 93,626,000. June eclipsed the previous record. That would be May’s record when 93,194,000 were not in the workforce. Get the picture? Things are going in the wrong direction.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, today’s workforce participation rate is at a 38-year low. I’d hold and release data like that on a Friday too.
The number of Americans not in the workforce hit the high water mark of 90-million in July 2013 and has continued to rise ever since. With 50 million on food stamps, tens of millions more receiving other forms of means-tested welfare and record low numbers paying into the federal income tax system, the old adage of “more people riding in the cart than are pulling it” comes to mind.
I’m a little tired of pulling. But until we get more people paying attention to the substance than the flash, we have little chance of turning this nation around.
While you’re discussing the sparks and fireworks of the debates, please take a moment to look around at the slow burn which is quietly destroying our nation.