Jobs, Wages and Misinformation Poverty: 1959 to 2004

[Omaha Steve]

Full article: http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/08/07/jobs-wages-and-misinformation/

Most of us have jobs. And most of us need those jobs to pay for essentials such as rent, mortgage, groceries, gas and the like.

So when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced on Friday that job growth has hit the skids—and the unemployment rate has worsened from 4.6 percent in June to 4.8 percent in July—it seemed natural the story would be front-page news. But not in the nation’s biggest newspapers.

On Saturday, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times relegated the news that job growth came in weak for the fourth straight month to their Business sections, where it’s a safe bet most casual newspaper readers won’t see it—especially on a weekend. Yet these papers find space on the front page for such articles when job growth is better than expected.




While The New York Times at least placed the story at the top of the Business section, the Post relegated it to a bottom corner, in a spot less conspicuous than that of an article in which a technology reporter whines about a letter he received from Google on the reporter’s potential copyright infringement.

It’s not like the declining job rate was a ho-hum event expected by most economists. Far from it. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast 145,000 new jobs in July—and only 113,000 showed up. And if July is anything like June, the BLS likely will revise those numbers in a week or two—to indicate even fewer jobs were created.

Meanwhile, Rawstory has obtained a copy of a 91-page memo to Senate Republicans outlining strategies for “homestretch” campaigning during the August congressional recess. Looks like one of the themes Republican candidates are told to emphasize is job growth.

Too bad the data included in the memo aren’t true.