Wolfers and other economists who are upbeat about job growth tend to focus on the official unemployment rate, which remains low at 5.1 percent. But that rate does not count millions of people who are working part-time but want full-time work or have stopped looking for work entirely since the Great Recession. When accounting for those factors, the current unemployment rate is actually 10 percent.
The especially sluggish jobs gains in the past two to three months and the decline relative to 2014 may be due to the appreciation of the dollar, which has made U.S. exports more expensive. As a result, the manufacturing sector, which many believed was experiencing a “comeback,” lost 9,000 jobs in September.
But the biggest drag on the U.S. recovery has been years of fiscal austerity at all levels of government.
Since 2010, Republicans in Congress have demanded massive reductions in federal government spending, limiting its traditional role as a rejuvenator of consumer demand. Every dollar of government stimulus during a downturn generates significantly more in economic growth than its cost. Congress’ partisan dysfunction has also played a role, with episodes like the October 2013 government shutdown costing the economy $24 billion in lost gross domestic product.
When state and local governments ran out of money during the recession, the federal government largely left them to fend for themselves. They coped by eliminating 765,000 jobs between 2007 and 2011. Many states have since declined to restore public spending for political or ideological reasons, even as their revenues have risen.
But, hey, the 1% are doing well, so that’s all that matters!
Right? Right??? {{Sigh}} 😦
Politicians Are Poody Heads 
I’m still waiting to get trickled on…
The only “trickling” most of us are going to get from those at the top is their urine, as they piss all over us.