Grasping at the Statistics on the Self-Employed(UE rate down w/ SE up)

[papau]

Seem there are some folks that say they are self-employed - but many of these folks are more likely to really be out of work and trying to bring in money as consultants or freelance workers - and these self described self employed - happy "rich" with no boss plus out of work folks pretending - are up from 6.1% of the people in the household survey who said they are working under Clinton (at the time Bush took office) - to 6.6% of the people in the household survey who said they are working last month. Indeed, if Bush had not increase that "self-employed" number by 156,000 last month the unemployment rate would not have dropped from 6.0% to 5.9%. Why do the talking heads on Sunday talk hide this fact?


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/06/business/06impact.html

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Grasping at the Statistics on the Self-Employed
By FLOYD NORRIS

he self-employed came to the rescue last month, and the result was that the unemployment rate came down even as companies were hiring fewer people than most economists had expected.

The self-employed are a group that statisticians have a hard time dealing with, and the apparent growth in that group may or may not be a good sign for the economy. Some people who say they are self-employed may really be out of work and trying to bring in money as consultants or freelance workers. Others may be doing very well, living a dream of boss-free success.

In any case, the government reported that the number of self-employed workers rose by 156,000 last month, to 9.2 million. That gain was a primary reason that the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent.

The number of people on nonfarm payrolls - a number that excludes the self-employed - rose just 57,000, far less than expected, and that led most analysts to call the report a disappointment.<snip>

The government collects two sets of employment data every month, a source of endless confusion because the two surveys sometimes provide widely varying pictures of the health of the job market. Add in the fact that some of the statistics, but not all, are seasonally adjusted, and confusion can easily reign....there are now 2.26 million fewer jobs, on a seasonally adjusted basis, then there were in January 2001 when President Bush took office.<snip>

[cosmicaug]

1. So we're supposed to be happy because there are more spammers out there?

[mhr]

2. Republicans Believe In Half Truths And Convenient Misconceptions

Why spoil a good run when you can hide behind an easy untruth.

[seasat]

3. What about the self employed working labor jobs?

I paid for my living expenses while working on my Masters by working as a painting contractor. I also repair computers (I'm usually paid in beer for that however :beer:). I wonder how many people that previously held high paying jobs are now working labor type jobs as the self employed.

Added on edit:

I also have a brother-in-law that was laid off and works as an athletic trainer. He is now working both as a substitute teacher and contract atheletic trainer for local sporting events. He making about a third of what he did on the job.

[kalian]

4. That's an example....

People are being "sub-employed", they're not working at full
potential/capacity. This is never really talked about within
economic circles. You talk about factory capacity but never about
the human "capacity". So, if you have an electrical engineer who
loses his/her job to some Hindu half-way across the world and then
they get a job at Wal-Mart as a cashier...do you think that they are
"effectively employed"? I don't think so...

And remember, this engineer had greater spending power when he/she
was effectively employed. Now, they would have to drastically cut
back on their spending thus causing a spiralling efect within the
economy...lower wages, cut back in spending, less says, less
production, on and on....

Remember: the human variable for corporations and to some extent
economists (capitalist) is a non-issue...humans are expendable...

[mhr]

5. Land, Labor, And Capital - Mere Factors Of Production To Republicans

And you are right about the unemployed EE. With that downsized job, there goes all the associated "velocity of money" due to the lost "multiplier effect" of that downsized salary(slave wage).