Job Reports: Distortion, Deception and Duplicity

Forget the IRS scandal, the Benghazi betrayal and the NSA spy hijinks. The Obama Administration has taken government skulduggery to a new level with the promulgation of dubious data and reports that conceal the depth of the nation's economic woes.

This month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) issued figures and reports that strained the credibility of the government.  In both cases, a sympathetic media failed in its obligation to do more than simply regurgitate the administration's talking-points.

Print outlets festooned their newspapers with headlines about the creation of 195,000 jobs in June when the BLS published its monthly employment figures.  Hand-picked economic experts hailed the growth as affirmation of the nation's continuing rebound from the recession.

However, with just a modicum of journalistic enterprise, the media could have discovered that part time hiring was the major contributor to the increase in jobs.  Temporary workers, primarily employed at contract firms, now account for 12 percent of the labor force.

The number of temps has skyrocketed by more than 50 percent since President Obama declared the recession ended four years ago. On a net basis, the nation's economy lost a stunning 326,000 full time jobs in June.  Part-time workers now number a record 28 million.

Growth in part-time employment can be attributed to Obamacare, which requires firms with at least 50 workers to offer health insurance or pay a $2,000 fine per employee.  Although the mandate has been delayed for a year, small businesses are holding payrolls to 49 workers or less while farming out work to part-time employees.

Included in the BLS report was the news that unemployment remained steady at 7.6 percent. However, this figure does not count so-called discouraged workers who have given up their search for a job.  They are ignored in the government's official unemployment numbers spoon-fed to the lapdog media.

Excluding these "discouraged" workers makes a significant difference. As of June, that category accounted for 1 million people.  It represents a 20 percent increase from last June and indicates the growing dissatisfaction of people over the lack of job opportunities.

It takes some digging, but the real unemployment figure is buried in the BLS data tables.  Including the "discouraged,"  unemployment in June was 14.3 percent of the workforce. That represents a significant spike from May's figure of 13.8 percent.

But the award for government obfuscation goes to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  The BEA released this month what it called a revised estimate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measure of the country's economic output.

Their figures showed that the economy expanded at a feeble 1.8 percent in the first quarter.  The original estimate, delivered with much fanfare last month, fixed the number at 2.5 percent.  Later the same month the bureau shaved it to 2.4 percent.  The third revision received scant media notice.

A "revision" of this magnitude--from 2.5 percent to 1.8 percent--is unprecedented.  It merited serious news coverage because it signals a frail, unhealthy economy.  Normal GDP growth for the U.S. has historically been about 3.0 percent.

On the heels of these reports, the Commerce Department this month released figures showing retail spending climbed a paltry 0.4 percent in June.  It is the weakest rise since January.  Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's economy.

What the Obama regime doesn't want you to know is this:  the economic rally has fizzled.  Job growth has stalled, except for part-time employment.  Real unemployment remains stubbornly high. Obamacare is negatively impacting hiring and reducing the number of hours worked by employees.

Despite the ominous signs, Obama appears supremely content to allow the economic decline of the country.  His answer to the crisis is to grow government assistance, adding millions of Americans on the federal rolls for food, disability, unemployment benefits, Medicaid and housing.

None of this is good news for most Americans.  But they deserve an honest appraisal of the nation's economy, not some embellished version adorned with government distortion, deception and duplicity.