A Closer Look at the Jobs Numbers Always Shows Weakness

The Bidementia administration has sunk to new lows in pimping fake job numbers which are almost always revised lower after the headline-grabbing initial release.  But close looks at all the data usually reveal the fakery.  One monthly report gives data on jobs openings, layoffs and quits.  As usual Zero Hedge does a good job of explaining the details.  Employers are supposedly looking to fill about 9.6 million jobs, which sounds like a lot, but employers always have jobs posted, even when they have no intention of hiring.  So the whole concept is misleading to start with.  And it is shrinking, and tends to get revised down further in succeeding months.  Health care, social services and state and local governments account for the biggest chunk of supposed openings.  When budget reality hits, that will change fast.  There are supposedly about 3.7 million unemployed people, but we got malingerers off of SS disability and forced welfare recipients to work, that pool would expand substantially.  The ratio of actual openings to actual people looking for a job is probably pretty tight, but there are likely substantial skill mismatches due to the failures of our educational system.  Foreign tech companies wanting to build factories in the US can’t find engineers or other skilled workers.  Too bad they don’t need social justice warriers.  The number of people quitting jobs and the number hired both declined, indicating weakness in the jobs market.  And of course the usual methodological note, in a mere three years the survey response rate has gone from 60% to about 31%, making the data less reliable.  (ZH Post)