Democrats and their allies in the media have been giddy the latest jobs report. The New York Times said it showed that July “was a sputtering, tepid month” — a boon to Democrats.
John Kerry said Friday’s report showed that instead of “turning the corner,” as President Bush claims, the report shows the economy was “taking a U-turn.” He added, “Millions of good jobs [are being] lost to plant closings and outsourcing.”
Baloney.
Pessimism about the economy helps Kerry and his friends, but an objective look at the report shows a very different picture. Yes, the number of people employed in July rose only slightly, by 32,000. But the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent — down from 6.3 percent a year ago and the lowest since October 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks.
The rate today is lower than when Bill Clinton was running for re-election in 1996. It’s lower than the average unemployment rate in the 1990s — not to mention the 1980s and 1970s. Plant closings are way down from a year ago, and the threat of outsourcing is a figment of Lou Dobbs’s imagination.
I don’t want to overwhelm you with numbers, but I am sick and tired of the biased bleating that passes for economic analysis these days. Look at this
