LTP News Sharing:


But something else is going on here,
too. Zerohedge points
out that this month’s supposedly positive numbers are driven
by an explosion in government workers:

The answer, ironically, was in the
number of government workers, which exploded higher, and
were not only instrumental in pushing the Household Survey
print much higher, but meant the difference between a 4.1%
and 4.5% unemployment rate.

Here is what happened.

In September, the
number of government workers as tracked by the Household
Survey soared by 785K, from 21.421 million to 22.216
million, both seasonally adjusted (source: Table A8 from the
jobs report). This
was the biggest monthly surge in government workers on
record (excluding the outlier print in
June 2020 which was a reversal of the record plunge from the
Covid collapse months before).

While government workers soared by
the most on record, private workers rose by just 133K, a
far more believable number, and one which however would
indicate that the recent labor market malaise continues.

This simple chart shows how the
currently-reported unemployment rate would be different if we
took out the new taxpayer-funded jobs:

Zerohedge notes that there is something
funny going on with the seasonal adjustment of government
employment, which always surges in September as schools get
back in session. But the basic point is more fundamental.
Statistical manipulation aside–and it seems clear that the
government has been manipulating government numbers to try to
help the party of government–an increase in public sector
workers has nothing to do with a strong economy, and is
nothing to celebrate. On the contrary.

Will the Biden/Harris
administration’s statistical manipulations help to drag the
bedraggled Kamala Harris and Tim Walz across the finish
line? I doubt it. This is just more gaslighting: don’t
believe your lying eyes, believe what the Party tells you!
That may work with a depressing number of suburban wine moms,
but they can’t sell it to the millions who can’t afford
groceries and gasoline.

Governments are the greediest
institutions in our society. The fact that greedy
governments are sucking up ever more resources, and hiring
ever more like-minded employees, is nothing for the rest of
us to celebrate.