(ThyBlackMan.com) Many of us could live a whole lifetime and have no discussions about the calculations surrounding our unemployment rates. The subject of Job Rates generally comes up, if there are projected layoffs, in our immediate future. That makes sense because of the economic upheaval a job loss causes, in a household. Hate to say it, unfortunately, that is now the case, as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, slowing the economy. So, let’s look, into Job Rates; to get some understanding.
In looking into our Job Rates, a rigged system was discovered and uncovered. Along with the rigged system, a broken Democratic Party was found, in need of reformation. Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party are manipulating our unemployment rates, so as to make them lower, enhancing their political image. But in doing this, they hurt American workers, including Black Americans. In an attempt to hang on to political power, they are putting politics before people. This might be why every effort to get them to voluntarily come clean, about our Job Situation, has failed.
You may wonder why Democrats are being called out for the practice of manipulating our Job Rates. Well, research shows, it was them, who rigged the system, 28 years ago, in 1994 during the Clinton administration. The Republicans also used the Democratic Party’s rigged unemployment rate system, throughout and over the years, to their advantage, when it was politically profitable for them to do so, during their control of the Oval Office.
The scheme of undercounting jobless workers, including blacks started in 1994, when Biden was a Senator. At the same time, these Congressional Black Caucus members were also in Congress, and they currently sit in Congress, today. They may have or should have been aware of former President Clinton’s policy, of undercounting the job rates of working-class Americans, including Black Americans; they are, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Representatives Maxime Waters, Sanford Bishop, James Clyburn, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Bobby Scott, and Bennie Thompson.
Naming these sitting Black Congress persons, at the time the system was rigged, doesn’t give a pass to other members, of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Congress itself, and those who sit in Congress today, who are aware of the rigged unemployment rate system also, and are silent. Silence about the rigged system is the greatest sin of these people, who are supposed to work in our best interest and have failed that task.
The real jobless rate for August is 7.0%, (U-6) not 3.7% (U-3), making the black rate, 12.0% at a minimum. These numbers are pulled from a table of categories, which were developed, as a result of a redesign of unemployment measurements done, in 1994. The end result of the redesign was, a modification of how to calculate the number of idle workers, in our economy. Read the complete study yourself, at this link: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1995/10/art3full.pdf.
After such a vigorous study, it was concluded the most comprehensive of the six categories in describing our unemployment situation was the category rate of U-6, which is the real unemployment rate. After the study was done, you would think the Clinton administration, would adopt the most comprehensive rate, or rather, the U-6 category rate, (the 7.0% rate today), and present it as our official unemployment rate. It would be the right thing to do. The reason they did the redesign of the rates was, to get to a more exact rate of joblessness, for all six categories, and worker groups that would be affected.
That did not happen and was actually the beginning of our rigged unemployment rate policy, as every president after Clinton used the rigged system. To this day, no one in the Clinton administration, or the Bureau of Labor Statistics admits to, or takes responsibility, for the Clinton administration’s adoption, of the category rate of U-3 (the 3.7% rate today), as their official unemployment rate, totally ignoring the economist’s recognition of the U-6 category rate (the 7.0% rate today), as being the true rate of unemployment.
Essentially, the Clinton administration by adopting the lower U-3 category rate, excluded from their count, American workers who are under-employed, part-time workers, who want, and cannot find a full-time job, one that pays a living wage, and those, who have looked for a job in the last year, but not in the previous month, or the last four weeks. These people are not considered unemployed, by the Clinton count. The fact, you have workers, working part-time jobs, is indicative of the poor health of the economy because of the lack of good paying, full-time jobs.
The Federal Reserve is hiking interest rates to quell inflation, leading to Black Americans being laid-off first, and many being forced into part-time jobs, unable to find a single full-time job that pays the same income. The August unemployment numbers showed black unemployment rising at a faster pace, than overall unemployment, as the August jobless rate increased from July.
Here is a simple way to visualize, or look at what Mr. Biden, and Democrats are doing. If you low-ball, or undercount laid-off workers, with a job rate lower (Biden’s August rate of 3.7%) than the real rate (7.0%) then, Biden has willfully, counted only about half of laid-off working-class Americans. He also willfully counts, only about half of Black American workers, who have a higher rate of unemployment at 12%. Blacks are systematically laid-off first, across the nation.
Even the most ardent Democrat should understand this. When you undercount our unemployment rates, which leads to under-reporting our layoffs as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, slowing the economy, putting it into a Recession, Democrats are not delivering for working-class Americans, including Black American workers.
The Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were great accomplishments because they actually destroyed racist systems that fueled racist behavior. President Biden if he ends defrauding working-class Americans, including Black American workers, in regard to our unemployment rates, can be just as effective, by destroying this system.
President Biden does not need more authority, to change his official Job Rate of 3.7% (U-3) for August, and beyond, to the real jobless rate of 7.0% (U-6), recognized by economists, as the true rate of unemployment, just as the Clinton administration under which the scheme was originated, did not need added authority to start it.
Some of you are thinking having uncovered the TRUTH about how badly President Biden and Democrats treat us, the American working-class, Black Americans also; we should abandon the Democratic Party – but that makes no sense. We are well invested in this Party. We would just have to build the same infrastructure, elsewhere.
You want to know what the answer is, unelect those who are, SILENT, about the rigged unemployment rate system. Believe me, I know, that’s easier said, than done. But it is the Real answer and its possible! You have to wonder, how can there be so much silence, when so many are suffering because of this scam? Even more families, and real people will suffer, as interest rates continue to rise, bringing on our 3rd Recession in 14 years.
Staff Writer; James Davis
Mr. Davis is a leading expert and consultant in Financial Analysis and Social Dynamics. He is a graduate of Florida A. and M. University (FAMU), a former stockbroker, and a human rights activist who resides in Sanford, Florida. He was awarded the prestigious Governor Haydon Burns Scholarship to attend FAMU and while at FAMU was awarded the first Martin Luther King Scholarship. He is the author of three books, among them is “The Fix This Time,” Boost Your Retirement Income! Simultaneously Create Jobs and Spur Economic Growth (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MI3PD2M).
Mr. Davis can be reached through his blog @ https://thefixthistime.com.