Liberals will, of course, blame this on Bush, even though during Bush’s terms in office, we had an increase in labor participation. Ever since Obama has taken office, we’ve had a drop in labor participation.
If they don’t blame Bush, they’ll either find a way to claim that having low labor participation is actually good for the economy; or they’ll say that the President has little effect on the economy, employment and labor participation. The latter is true to some degree.
Just because the economy was better under Bush than it is now doesn’t necessarily mean that Bush had anything to do with it. The economy is such a complicated conglomeration of human actions that no one can successfully control it. This is why central economic planning always results in disaster.
While presidents themselves can’t control the economy, there are many factors which stifle economic growth. Higher taxes, increases in government rules and regulations, and overall government growth make starting a business and keeping one afloat very difficult. That sort of government control has been going on for a long time. And it’s at least part of the reason we’ve seen so many local businesses in the past few years have to fold up shop. That’s why so many are having a hard time finding work.
It comes as no surprise that the labor participation rate has declined so much ever since Obama took office. According to CNS News:
Although the number of people who had jobs in
the United States increased by 143,000 in December, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, that still left 1,687,000 fewer Americans holding jobs than
held jobs six years ago in December 2007—the month the last recession
began.
In November, 144,443,000 Americans were
employed, said BLS. In December, 144,586,000 held jobs—representing a one-month
increase of 143,000.
However, the 144,586,000 Americans who had jobs
in December 2013 was still 1,687,000 fewer than the 146,273,000 who held jobs
six years ago in December 2007.
This is why a family-owned ice cream plant in Maryland received some 1,600 applications to fill only 36 job positions. Lots of people are out of work, and many of them have basically given up looking for a job. By BLS qualifications, they’ve “dropped out of the labor force.” When they drop out of the labor force, the unemployment rate goes down, and the President gets all the credit for an amazing economy and for “creating jobs.” Unless the President happens to be a Republican, in which case he’d be excoriated for “destroying jobs” and “forcing people out of the labor force.”
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