Dismal July jobs report nothing to crow about

The July jobs figure of 163,000 is irrational and deceptive given that this nation is having difficulty producing even enough jobs to keep up with its population growth. As such, a Daily Herald bold front page headline on Saturday, Aug. 4, caught my undivided attention, Big day in jobs news.

Taking the last five-year average annual change of employed to non-institutional civilian population, 1.36 million jobs are needed each year just to keep up with population growth. At a rate of 200,000 jobs gained each month, it would take 6.8 months just to keep up with population growth.

That would give us 86,569 jobs per month extra to make up for the 10 million jobs lost, or a whopping 9.68 years just to get back to 2007 unemployment levels. The latest July figure of 163,000 jobs created does not reflect the fact that over 50,000 jobs were lost in July, due to cutbacks, and that 55,000 of the those created were federal jobs or that employment and unemployment are estimated separately and that only individuals still looking for jobs are counted.

Nor does it reflect revisions in both the May and June jobs reports. Net increases in nonfarm jobs were revised down from plus 77,000 jobs to plus 67,000 in May and from plus 80,000 to plus 64,000 in June.

It is misleading to say that the economy is moving in “the right direction” just because the jobs numbers are perceived to be positive. n that the number of unemployed continues to increase in numbers, the economy continues to fall further and further behind and is not moving in the right direction.

It just goes to show how those who cite and advance phony jobs evaluations count on “Joe Public” not being able to add and subtract.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff