News last week out of the U.S. Census Bureau that real median household income grew slightly from 2005 to last year put President Bush in a good mood.
“More of our citizens are doing better in this economy, with continued rising incomes and more Americans pulling themselves out of poverty.”
Is that the sound of one hand clapping?
Well, “doing better” is one of those relative phrases. Someone who destroyed his new car in a crash and just emerged from a two-week coma can be said to be “doing better.”
As we mark another Labor Day, just how much better are we doing?
The unemployment rate was 4.6 percent, or 7.1 million people, according to July figures, the latest numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number represents an additional 188,000 more unemployed since a month earlier. Not bad; in July 2006, 244,000 joined the ranks of the unemployed.
Of those unemployed 15 weeks or longer, the number was 2,413,000. A year earlier it was 2,343,000; relatively unchanged. In July, 1,308,000 were without work for 27 weeks or longer. Not bad; in 2006, the number was 1,315,000.
In July, the bureau found unemployment rates for adult men at 4.2 percent, teenagers 15.2 percent, whites 4.2 percent, blacks 8 percent and Hispanics 5.9 percent. The unemployment rate for adult women edged up to 4.1 percent. Not bad, if you”™re a white male.
Also interesting to note is that of those among the 146,110,000 employed, 7,636,000 hold multiple jobs.
We wonder if those hardworking moonlighters helped bring up the median household income average that put the president in a good mood.
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