Washington Post: October's Higher Unemployment Shows 'Job Growth'

Just before Election Day, the Washington Post is super excited about Friday’s unemployment numbers showing “job growth” for October, despite unemployment increasing from 7.8% in September to 7.9%. The paper describes this change as the unemployment rate staying “flat.”

The Post tries to give Obama cover even as it ultimately notes that there really wasn’t much improvement in jobless figures for October. In fact, the Post almost admits that its report is intended to help Obama right in its first paragraph.

The U.S. jobs market in October sustained its slow trudge toward better times, the government reported on Friday, in the last major report card on the economy before the presidential election.

Despite all the happy talk sprinkled through the article, the Post is forced to note that much of this “good news” is closer to treading water as opposed to any “slow trudge toward better times.”

Absurdly, the Post tried hard to spin the actual increase in unemployment as a good thing.

The unemployment rate in October did rise to 7.9 percent, up from 7.8 percent, but the reason behind the uptick suggested an improved job market: More Americans decided to look for work, though not all of them found jobs.

Well, if the unemployment figures remained “essentially unchanged” and the rate increased because more people are now putting themselves back in the job market, then new jobs didn’t keep pace with the number of job seekers.

The Post also didn’t mention why more people might have entered the job force. Why, for instance, didn’t the paper report that seasonal employment is just getting in swing as retail outlets hire temporary workers for the Christmas season?

But this also ignores the fact that more people than ever have simply given up looking for work in this dour economy.

Obama’s recovery has grown at the slowest rate in 70 years and nearly 5 million fewer Americans are working or looking for work than when Obama took office. This dropout rate accounts for almost all of the supposed reduction of unemployment since 2009, for those who have given up looking for work do not figure into the unemployment rates.

Naturally, none of this is mentioned by the Washington Post as it celebrates Obama’s wonderful economic recovery.