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smooth · 10-23-2003, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Food Eater Lad
Here are some stats that show the exact opposite of what Harmless Rabbit posted. Note I used a real source, not a secondary article to pursue an agenda.

Notice unemployment is LOWERING. Not rising as HR's post claimed.

FEL, I'm going to point out two alarming trends by bolding the relevant portions from your quote:

Quote:

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
The number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons rose in September to 5.0 million, seasonally adjusted. These persons indicated that they would like to work full time but worked part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

In September, 1.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals wanted and were available to work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed, how-ever, because they did not actively search for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Of the 1.5 million, 388,000 were discouraged workers--persons who were not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs were available for them. The number of discouraged workers in September was about the same as a year earlier. The other 1.2 million
marginally attached had not searched for work because they were in school or had family responsibilities. (See table A-13.)

While 1.2 million of those 1.5 million are in school or taking care of family responsibility (something I would hope our society wants to promote--not hinder), this is hardly a portrayal of domestic growth.