RUSH: They’re lying to us again big-time on the unemployment, 5.3% unemployment? (laughing) Yes. These guys are really good. They just keep piling it on, 5.3% unemployment rate, folks. Hey, can you just feel it cooking? Can you feel it sizzling out there? This country is growing by leaps and bounds. My God, if you wanted to find a job, your choices, do you get one for 200 grand or 300 grand. That’s how much opportunity there is out there. That’s the choice you’ve got. And if you’re not aware of that, you somehow have your head in a hole.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let me get this unemployment thing out of the way. It’s fascinating. Just talked about this yesterday or the day before. David Stockman’s website where he assessed the actual US unemployment rate at 42.9 percent. Based on the number of labor hours available to be worked at a 40-hour workweek. Based on the labor force participation rate, which is the smallest its been in 38 years now.
We’re very, very close to actually 93 million Americans not in the workforce, and they are not counted in the unemployment statistics for the most part. Most of them are not counted because most of them have been out of work for so long they’re no longer looking for work. And if you’re out of work and not looking for any, you don’t get counted as unemployment.
The unemployment rate at 5.3%? Who knew? Here’s the way the AP handles the propaganda chore today: “US employers added jobs at a solid pace in June, and the unemployment rate fell to 5.3%, a seven-year low. But wages failed to budge, and other barometers of the job market painted a mixed picture.”
Really?
“The economy gained 223,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate fell from 5.5% in May,” to 5.3% according to the Labor Department. Can I give you some stats that the AP does not report? It’s guaranteed the only thing you need to hear today. I’m just going to read it right from the Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 in June.” This nonfarm business is a confusing thing. It’s a throwback to when we were an agricultural economy, and they just haven’t changed the term. But nonfarm payroll employment, that’s the number of jobs created in a month. And AP reported here at 223,000.
So let me start again. This nonfarm gets in there and confuses people. Let me just leave that out. Starting again in three, two, one. “Total employment increased by 223,000 in June, and the unemployment rate declined to 5.3%, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. …The civilian labor force declined by 432,000 in June, following an increase of similar magnitude in May.”
Here’s the regime. Grab audio sound bite number — Thomas Perez, the Secretary of Labor. He’s on CNBC Squawk on the Street Today. They asked him about the labor force participation rate. The co-host David Faber says, “The participation rate seems to be concerning people, Mr. Perez. We haven’t seen it this low since 1977. What is your reaction? We’re at 62.3% labor force participation rate. That’s down big from just a month ago.”
PEREZ: When you compare to 1977 our population is much older now. So that comparison is slightly misleading in that sense. The other thing we always monitor labor force participation very closely. ItÂ’s important to understand what did not happen last month. This is not a case of people who got discouraged and stopped looking for work. If that had been the case, then I would be worried about this data point. What happened is that June is the highest month of inflows into the economy. This isn’t about discouraged workers. This is about the pace of entry largely into the workforce, (crosstalk) by young people.
RUSH: Folks, look… (sigh) There are any a number of ways to deal with this. The truth has always been my chosen option. It’s absurd. Ninety million Americans not working? You blame that on Baby Boomers retiring? The last we heard about the concept of Baby Boomers retiring is that they aren’t, and do you know why? They don’t have any retirement stocked away! They can’t afford to retire. They can’t afford to quit. The Baby Boomers are not quitting, and that’s why the Millennials can’t find a job!
We do not have the usual turnover in our workforce. We do not have the usual 58- to 65-year-old retirement taking place because those people don’t have any money to retire on, because nobody has any money, other than the people who aren’t working. So trying to lay this off on Baby Boomers is just absurd. And the other co-host at CNBC said, “Well, isn’t the lesson by Europe that by raising the minimum wage you risk locking some people out of the economy?”
PEREZ: We’ve now had the best two years of job growth, uh, that we have seen since the end of the Clinton administration.
RUSH: Right. Stop it.
PEREZ: That is fact!
RUSH: There’s no reason to go any further. That just flat-out isn’t true. “We’ve now had the two best years of job growth that we’ve seen since the end of the Clinton administration”? There’s no evidence of it. I mean, they can say this all day long, but you go out and try to find a career-oriented job. Go out try to find a job 30-or-more hours a week. You go and do it; see what you find. Find out how much you’ll get paid. These people are lying through their —
I’m sorry. It’s not a good way to persuade people. “These people may be well-intentioned and they may be hoping that they’re right, but they’re not. They’re terribly wrong, and we’re all being misled by their wonderfully well-intentioned comments. But, my friends, this just isn’t true. And, again, I will remind you: The labor force shrunk by 432,000 jobs last month.” They’re lying through their teeth, but that’s too — what’s the word? It’s too harsh. Young millennial women don’t like language like that, I’m told.
It’s off-putting, and it makes them not like the person telling them that, and they feel sympathy for whoever it is I’m talking about. So if I accuse the Regime of lying… “See, the Regime is nice people. The Regime is made up of nice people! Government is nice. Democrats are nice. Obama is a nice guy. Hillary is a nice guy. They’re all nice people. And anybody criticizing nice people, they’re not nice!”
So that happens to me in this case. So you see, you have to be very, very careful here. But this is just bogus. All of this is just lies. “The best two years of job growth that we’ve seen since the Clinton administration”? I don’t know why I obsess over this because people don’t care anyway. It doesn’t matter. But to lay this off on Baby Boomers? It’s just… There’s a story. Look, this is actually kind of confusing. It’s a story about the percentage of Baby Boomers that would gladly leave the country because they’re so dispirited.
With what we’re being told about Millennials in most news story is, they love Obama. They love the country. They’re all excited. They’re happy as they can be. They’re getting gay marriage. They’re getting transgendered rights. They’re getting equality. They’re getting happiness. I mean, everything they want, they’re getting. The Confederate flag pulled down and burned. Whatever they want, they’re getting. Yet here’s a story about how many of them want to leave because they don’t see any future?
It’s, oh, so confusing out there.
How about this? How about this? I’m through with the jobs numbers. The jobs numbers are bogus. We lost twice as many jobs last month as were created. The unemployment rate is 42%. It is not 5.3%. The economy isn’t growing. There’s nothing better today than it was in the last two years of the Clinton administration. Nothing! Everything is worse, including public attitude. You just can’t find it because people are afraid to express it.
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