{"id":10467,"date":"2014-01-10T17:19:44","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T17:19:44","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-01-10T17:19:44","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T17:19:44","slug":"stunning_92_million_americans_not_working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/01\/10\/stunning_92_million_americans_not_working\/","title":{"rendered":"Stunning: 92 Million Americans Not Working"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: The jobs number came out<\/a>. And I\u2019ll tell you, I have never seen anything like this, either. We now have 92 million Americans not working. We created the equivalent of 1,700 jobs per state in December. One of the highest employment months of the year. December\u2019s hiring traditionally is so good that the experts in the Drive-By Media were expecting 196,000 jobs to be created or begun, recorded in December, and the number came in at 74,000 jobs. So 74,000 jobs, and half of these jobs are part time, meaning under 30 hours. The media is scratching their heads over that. They can\u2019t figure that out.<\/p>\n

Have you ever heard of Obamacare? Half these 74,000 jobs, or almost half, it\u2019s statistically very close, are part-time jobs. The unemployment rate<\/a>, with 92 million Americans not working, with 74,000 jobs created in December. That is the lowest number I think in three years. It\u2019s bad. It is horrible. So 92 million Americans not working. The labor force participation rate continues to shrink, 92 million Americans not working, 74,000 jobs created versus the expectation of nearly 200,000 jobs that they thought would be created. Half the jobs are part time and — are you ready? — the unemployment rate fell to 6.7%. It simply isn\u2019t possible. You cannot have an unemployment rate of 6.7%. <\/line><\/p>\n

The reason this is important, \u2019cause that\u2019s the number the low-information voter sees. That\u2019s the number the low-information voter hears about. And that number is down from, what, seven, 7.1%. So the unemployment rate that the government puts out, that one number makes it look like we have a bang-up job creation market that\u2019s just cranked up and going full speed. And the only reason that number is 6.7% is because the vast majority, the 92 million Americans not working, are not counted as unemployed. And do you know why? You do by now. Because the vast majority of them have been unemployed for so long, they\u2019ve stopped looking. And if you\u2019re out of work and you stop looking for work, you are not counted as unemployed. The only way you end up being counted as unemployed is if you are unemployed but trying to find a job. <\/p>\n

But we are paying people so much not to work that 92 million Americans can survive with three meals a day and whatever else while not working. Stunning. George W. Bush had at his peak an unemployment rate of 4.7%, and that was a real 4.7%. That was statistically full employment, because the conventional wisdom is that even in a full employment economy, you\u2019re still gonna have people in flux, moving in and out of the jobs, and you\u2019re gonna basically have between four and 5% of the population not working at any given time.<\/p>\n

So they say statistically it\u2019s full employment. So they\u2019re asking us to believe that we\u2019re just two percentage points away from full employment? It\u2019s an utter disaster, what is happening in this economy<\/a>. It\u2019s an utter disaster what\u2019s happening in the job market. It\u2019s a human tragedy what is happening in this country, and it\u2019s happening in the United States of America, and it\u2019s been happening for five years, and there is no end in sight. <\/line><\/p>\n

Let me put the cherry on top of this. As you will hear in the audio sound bites later on in the busy broadcast, noted Democrats like Chuck-U Schumer and others are actually very happy with the unemployment news today. I\u2019ll give you one guess as to why. It helps them secure new legislation for extended unemployment benefits. For the purposes of extending unemployment benefits, you\u2019re not gonna hear Democrats talk about 6.7% unemployment. <\/p>\n

You\u2019re going to hear them talk about how disappointing the job creation was, and they\u2019re going to find a way to blame it on Republicans and the sequester and the shutdown. You know how that goes. They\u2019re gonna say that the Republicans owe it to the people they\u2019re harming to extend unemployment benefits for at least three months. So, once again, absolutely shockingly horrible news is welcomed — greeted with great fanfare and excitement — by the Democrat Party. <\/p>\n

The unemployment rate, 6.7%, is the lowest since October 2000. That\u2019s before Obama was elected. The experts thought that it would hold steady at 7%. This is an absolute fake. This is one of the biggest misdirections, the biggest head feints that I can recall. This number is meaningless. It\u2019s literally meaningless. The U-6 number, which counts people no longer looking for work as unemployed, I think is now at 13%, and that is a number much closer to reality. <\/p>\n

All you need to do is ask yourselves or anybody else, how in the world can 92 million able-bodied Americans be not working, and unemployment is at 6.7%? Again, your average E! Entertainment network viewer, your average viewer of the HBO show Girls will not know that 6.7% is ridiculous and irrelevant. They\u2019re going to just think, “Oh, wow, the economy\u2019s really going great now! We\u2019re creating jobs left and right.”<\/p>\n

That 74,000 jobs created was the biggest month of the year, and 92 million Americans totally out of the workforce. It\u2019s just… If I had any political power, elected political power, this would be the only thing I\u2019d talk about today and how unacceptable this is. I wouldn\u2019t be talking about lane closures and this stuff. But Christie and all that, it\u2019s a perfect distraction from all of this, so will continue to be discussed. <\/line><\/p>\n

More than half (again, more than half) of the 74,000 jobs created were temporary, part time and temporary — and 20,000 fewer women held jobs in December. According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of employed women 16 and over declined by 20,000 from November to December. The number of women employed dropped from 67882,000 to 67,862,000, in November to December. Barack Obama. <\/p>\n

Grab me audio sound bite number 21. Yesterday afternoon at the White House during his announcement of the first five promise zones, President Obama…<\/p>\n

OBAMA: We\u2019ve gotta make sure this recovery — which is real — leaves nobody behind. And that\u2019s gonna be my focus throughout the year.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is simply incompetence and irresponsibility (and prevaricating, lying, whatever you want to call it) on parade. “We\u2019ve gotta make sure this recovery — which is real — leaves nobody behind. And that\u2019s gonna be my focus throughout the year,” with 92 million Americans not working, 74,000 jobs created when the experts expected 196,000 jobs. Half the jobs created are temporary — and while this burgeoning recovery is going on, we\u2019re not gonna leave anybody behind. <\/p>\n

We have to extend unemployment benefits for yet another three months. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: This number of people not working, labor force participation rate, is a record 92 million people. This labor force participation rate plunge equals, on a percentage basis, where we were in 1978. Now, I realize many of you are too young to remember 1978. <\/line>We were in the second year of Jimmy Carter\u2019s administration — and, folks, things were so bad back then that the “misery index” was invented as a way of expressing how bad it was. Interest rates were in the 12 to 14% range. Inflation was double-digit. <\/line><\/p>\n

I mean, it was an absolute, total, utter disaster. Jimmy Carter was giving speeches from the White House about the national malaise. He was telling everybody turn down the thermostats and wear sweaters because the Middle East was restricting oil delivery. It was absolutely disastrous. It was on the heels of mess caused by Watergate, but it was, again, the policies of a liberal Democrat president. This is Jimmy Carter\u2019s second term is what\u2019s happening here. <\/p>\n

Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter\u2019s second term, if he had won. <\/p>\n

So we\u2019re now statistically right where we were in the middle of the Jimmy Carter disaster, and especially when you look at the similarity as a percentage basis was the labor force participation rate. All of this is just awful as an American, knowing that these are real people affected by this. These are real human beings who are affected by all of this — and yet inside the Beltway, they\u2019re looked at as statistics or recipients of extended unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n

And we have the Democrat Party telling us, “The most humane thing we can do is continue to pay them not to work,” and when somebody suggests, “Well, maybe we ought to start finally focusing on reviving the job market, they\u2019re mocked and laughed at and made fun of.” You know why? Because in Washington it\u2019s now considered so impossible, it\u2019s just an over the top suggestion. “You mean jobs? That\u2019s not gonna help anybody! We can\u2019t wait for that to happen.” <\/p>\n

That\u2019s a small indication of how distorted and bastardized normalcy has become.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Back to the audio sound bites on the employment situation. They figured this out at CNN on their own today. I guess this is their early morning show. One of their cohosts, Kate Bolduan, is talking to Christine Romans, who is the chief business correspondent, about the December job numbers. Kate Bolduan said, “The Labor Department\u2019s just released the December jobs report, the final jobs report of 2013, and here\u2019s Christine Romans with the detail. Hello, Christine!”<\/line>