Its Defining Characteristic

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Unemployment LineWe’ve expended a lot of digital ink at Save Jersey explaining why this country’s ongoing economic “recovery” isn’t really a recovery by any generous or traditional definition. You know this.

Friday’s job report provides only the latest sad example. Did you miss it?

The media is celebrating 195,000 new jobs; even Forbes magazine, while acknowledging the economy’s lackluster growth, cited June’s numbers as proof that “progress remains its defining characteristic.”

That’s simply not true, Save Jerseyans, and Republicans are missing the mark by failing to reassert the reality of this regrettable situation. “While there’s some positive news in the report, there are still far too many unemployed Americans desperately seeking work,”  said Dr. Alieta Eck, one of two NJ GOP U.S. Senate hopefuls. “The White House continues to demonstrate that it has no workable plan to promote growth. ObamaCare will be a huge job killer and perhaps the President realized this when he delayed the employer mandate provision for another year. But until there is a permanent repeal of ObamaCare, businesses will continue to fear its looming specter and economic growth will be slow.”

Where is the positive news?? With all due respect to Dr. Eck and the thousands of other GOP candidates releasing similar statements over the past few days, good news is nowhere to be found in the damn report; you’ll only find it in the media interpretations of the report. Remember: the “official” unemployment rate doesn’t encompass the underemployed (i.e. those who can’t find full time employment) or those who’ve simply stopped looking. The ordinary unemployment rate which we hear about on TV is measured utilizing unemployment claim filings. The “U-6″ unemployment rate, however, does take full account of this economy’s forgotten casualties, and it rose to 14.3% in June 2013 representing a 0.5% uptick from the prior month.

Put the champagne back on ice, folks.

“Progress” isn’t the defining characteristic of the Obama economy; we’ll always remember these years for the record number of our neighbors, family and friends giving up on the American dream. Labor force participation isn’t any better than it was during the closing hours of Election 2012 and it actually got worse heading into the summer. It’d be nice to see GOP candidates articulate this sobering fact rather than continue to accept the false premise that things are somehow getting better. They’re not, or at least not in any meaningful way. If they were, would the President have delayed the full implementation of his crowning legislation achievement until 2015? Less people are working now than when President Obama took office. The run-up to 2014 is a great time to talk about it!

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

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