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(ThyBlackMan.com) The day the Democratic party, during the Clinton administration embarked upon an official policy of underreporting the unemployment rates of all American workers, professional, blue collar, union, and working-class Americans, they created economic problems. There are unintended negative ripple effects, we are feeling today, because the Clinton administration tampered with our unemployment rates. The good news is, for us and VP Kamala Harris, it can be corrected. She has been said, by none other than former President Bill Clinton himself; that she can be a transformative president.
Fixing the REAL economy, starts with recognizing what is truly the REAL economy, and it is not the economy Biden is now, promoting. He said in the recent past, when he crisscrossed the nation, “Unemployment is below 4%. The longest stretch of unemployment below 4%, in the last 50 years.” Biden referred to and used the U-3 category rate of unemployment taken from the table of Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization. Biden in his statement implies the U-3 rate is comprehensive of our monthly unemployment situations. It is not. U-3 was never intended to be comprehensive of our monthly Job situation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economists. The best way to understand what the REAL economy is; let’s do a short review. You have to go back to 1994 and the Clinton administration, where, and when the REAL economy was distorted by the Democratic party.
According to the BLS economists, the most comprehensive unemployment rate for September is the U-6 category rate of 7.7%. That conclusion was the result of a readjustment of our unemployment categories done under the auspices of the BLS during the Clinton administration in 1994. The African American unemployment rate averages 2.7% higher over the most comprehensive unemployment rate of 7.7% making their rate 10.4%. The nation was declared in 2008, to be in a Great Recession by the Obama administration, when the national rate at that time, reached 10.0%. So, the black rate of 10.4% for September currently, puts Black Americans squarely in a Great Recession, which is taking a toll on the working population of the black community.
Women who head households with children are also suffering, as a result of the undercounting of the nation’s unemployment rates. That is obviously concerning. The Biden-Harris administration promotion of 4.1%, the U-3 category rate of unemployment for September as being comprehensive of our monthly Job situation, when the Real rate is 7.7% is problematic as stated above, when it comes to unintended consequences. Biden and Harris are operating as if we have a full-employment economy, which is what 4.1% unemployment is indicative of. Thus, they are offering third party programs, as a fix to what ails our economy, much like the Obama administration did, when a more comprehensive solution to growing our economy is called for. A variety of third-party programs, which is the mainstay of the party, is not the solution if we use the Real and most comprehensive rate of joblessness, a comprehensive economic recovery plan is.
So, how did we get here, how did we get to the point of where Biden openly underreports the nation’s unemployment rates to the detriment of ALL American workers but especially African American workers. In 1994, when our unemployment rate categories were adjusted, the Clinton administration ignored the conclusion of BLS economists and promoted the U-3 category rate as not only being the official rate but the most comprehensive. Here are comments, from then Secretary of Labor Robert Reich to my blog, explaining the Clinton administration’s position.
“Dear Mr. Davis.
You write that “it was decided by Clinton and Reich that the U-3 category rate would become his administration’s official unemployment rate.” That is untrue. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a statistical agency whose independence from politics is critically important to its credibility. Neither I as secretary of labor nor President Clinton intruded on that independence. The BLS decided and continues to decide how the nation’s unemployment rate is defined, measured, and explained to the public.”
Research indicates, economists from the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not intend for the U-3 category unemployment rate to be perceived, as a monthly comprehensive measure of the United States’ unemployment situation, as the Secretary of Labor implies above. This is evidenced by an article in the Monthly Labor Review, a journal established in 1915 and known as the principal journal of the BLS. In the October 1995 issue, John E. Bregger, a retired Assistant Commissioner for Current Employment Analysis, and Steven E. Haugen, an economist, at the time, in the Division of Labor Force Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics stated, on page 24 that the U-6 category rate is the most comprehensive among the new range of alternative measures for the U.S. unemployment rate. Despite this, administrations from Clinton to Biden have wrongly and arbitrarily continued to present the U-3 rate, the lower of the two category rates, as being comprehensive of our unemployment situation, essentially undercounting our unemployment rates. Here is the link to the article, read it for yourself, at your leisure. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1995/10/art3full.pdf.
Harris can declare the U-6 category rate, as the most comprehensive rate of unemployment for her incoming administration, and she can do that, right now. VP Kamala Harris needs no authority from Congress to do this just as Clinton needed no additional authority to “wrongly promote” U-3 as being comprehensive. The vice president will join a list of current administration officials who are also concerned about Biden’s use of the U-3 category rate.
Janet Yellen, President Biden’s Secretary of the Treasury, on February 18, 2021, in an interview on CNBC, commenting on the nation’s January unemployment rate said, “We have an unemployment rate that if properly measured in some sense, is really close to 10%.” The U-3 category rate, Biden’s official jobless rate, for the month of January flashed 6.3%, while the most comprehensive, and real unemployment rate, U-6 was 11.1%.
Lael Brainard, the former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, and President Joe Biden’s current Director of his National Economic Council, stated in an article on February 24, 2021 in the Wall Street Journal the following: “When we take into consideration the more than 4 million workers who have left the labor force since the pandemic started, as well as misclassification, the unemployment rate is close to 10 percent currently—much higher than (Biden’s) headline unemployment rate of 6.3 percent.”
Biden’s former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Cecilia Rouse, on April 2, 2021, on the White House web site, stated, she felt the March unemployment rate was around 9 %, rather than the 6% official unemployment rate Biden was touting. The real unemployment rate, the U-6 category rate, clocked in at 10.7%.
Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve at the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee news conference on January 27, 2021, said, “The real unemployment rate is close to 10 percent (for December) if you include people that have left the labor force.” At that time, the U-3 official rate was 6.7%, and the U-6 rate was 11.7%.
American workers, including Black American men, and women workers are concerned, when the Democratic party undercounts/underreports our unemployment rates without a comprehensive plan to grow our economy, as economic immigrants cross our borders by the millions. However, Consumer Spending pulled America out of the Covid 19 Economic Downturn, and can do so again through a 10%, $25,000 Consumer Tax Cut. But we have to acknowledge, we don’t have a full-employment economy as Biden and Harris say. https://thyblackman.com/2023/12/15/by-dealing-truly-when-it-comes-to-our-unemployment-rates-president-joe-biden-and-vice-president-kamala-harris-will-make-america-stronger-economically/.
Finally, “RIGHT is RIGHT, even if everyone is against it, and WRONG is WRONG, even if everyone is for it,” William Penn once said. Mr. Biden is in the WRONG for undercounting the Job rates of All American workers, hiding our layoffs, Black men included! Harris, can say, right now, before becoming president, “I will end the policy of underreporting the unemployment rates of American workers.” Will she? I hope so, as VP Harris clearly says, she wants to empower, and support ALL working-class Americans, and their families.
Staff Writer; James Davis
Question? Comment? One may use this email address; MrDavis@ThyBlackMan.com.
