Gallup says the government's numbers will be in the 9.6% to 9.8% range (due to the government's cutoff date of mid-September rather than to the end of the month). But if that's true, and the government's numbers come out as being in the 9.6% to 9.8% range, does that mean that Obama and his minions have gotten to Gallup and we shouldn't believe either of them?
The numbers released by the government was 9.6%, BTW.
One interesting happening is the Stimulus Package, by all accounts, went to protect mostly government jobs more than anything else. The high unemployment has slashed deeply into state tax revenues, forcing deep cuts in 2011 budgets. So far, some 46 states have cut spending by $125 billion, or about 19 percent of their budgets overall. Looking ahead, 39 states are projecting budget gaps of $112 billion for the following year. When all states have weighed in, that's expected to hit $140 billion.
The U.S. economy is growing, albeit slowly. But job creation is even slower and not helping the nearly 15 million Americans sidelined by the worst recession since the 1930s. Private businesses added 64,000 jobs. That's not even enough to keep up with the roughly 100,000 people who typically enter the work force every month.
But while private businesses were hiring, sort of, public agencies were firing like crazy. Some 159,000 jobs were cut by federal state and local governments. As expected, the biggest losses, about half, came from temporary Census jobs. Local governments shed 76,000 jobs from their payrolls. Of those, roughly 50,000 jobs were cut from local schools.
So much for the Stimulus saving or creating even the government jobs.
