Jay Inslee likes to tout job creation as the focus of his administration, a bizarre claim given his constant blathering about climate change being his – and the world’s – top priority. Well, based on an Associated Press blurb today, you can be forgiven for thinking that Inslee doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
The AP points out that our state’s private sector actually lost 1,000 jobs in July, but those losses were offset by an increase in 3,600 government jobs. Despite the taxpayers’ funding those new jobs, the our state’s unemployment rate stayed at 5.8%, almost 20% above the rest of the country, since the “national unemployment rate for July was 4.9 percent.”
Yet, even that bad news could be worse if the feds reported the accurate statistics for how bad the job market is for many people. As the report pointed out, the “unemployment rate counts the percentage of people who are unemployed and actively looking for work, and doesn’t include those who have stopped looking for work.”
However, you can expect Inslee top keep making up his own job stats for the rest of his re-election campaign, lest he become one of those people looking for a new job after November.
From the link:
Unemployment in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area dropped from 4.6 percent in June to 4.4 percent last month.
Hmmm … If the liberal parts of our state have an unemployment rate 10% (and falling!) below the national average, while our entire state has a steady unemployment rate almost 20% above the national average, that must mean the conservative parts of our state have a very large (and rising!) unemployment rate.
It sure looks like the conservative parts of our state should start listening to leaders from “the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area.” You know, leaders like Jay Inslee.
Of course government is quick to ignore the number of people that have given up trying to find a job or left the workforce. These rates are the highest across the nation ever! Can also look at the homeless, panhandlers, and other indicators of people in need. Simply cherry-picking one narrow statistic does not paint much of a picture.
Of course government is quick to ignore the number of people that have given up trying to find a job or left the workforce.
Are you referring to U6? Because as you can see at the link, our federal government does track it, and has for a long time.
These rates are the highest across the nation ever!
As clearly shown on the graph at the link. it peaked sharply during 2008 and has declined annually ever since.
Simply cherry-picking one narrow statistic does not paint much of a picture.
You can direct that criticism to Shift, which both ignored U6 and also failed to note the context I supplied: Washington state’s employment rate (U3 or U6) is higher than the national average entirely because the conservative, Republican-dominated