The New York Times has an extremely balanced
story regarding Bush II and job creation.
It states that by the official number for Bush job creation is negative 2.3 million.
However, Bush apologists are trumpeting an alternative measure of job creation which pegs the overall change at plus 689,000.
What else does this alternative survey tell us?
Illegal aliens, holding many of these jobs, are more likely to show up in the household survey rather than the payroll survey. Their numbers may be exaggerated in the household survey, which is updated less frequently than the payroll numbers, but low-wage work, whoever does it, is an ever more important labor force phenomenon.
In other words, this favorable survey measures jobs held by illegal immigants as American labor force job creation. Interesting, in light of the fact that Bush is promoting illegal worker amnesty. Also, note the appearance of low-wage work as an "important labor force phenomenon."
The Times story also tells us that the true unemployment rate is grossly underestimated.
Even the bureau recognizes the inadequacy of its official unemployment rate. Buried in its monthly employment release is an alternative unemployment rate, called "labor underutilization." That rate was 9.9 percent in December, down from 10.1 percent in November, but unchanged from the previous December and 4.2 percentage points higher than the official unemployment rate last month.
Trying to measure more realistically the slack in the labor market, the bureau adds to the officially unemployed - that is, those actively seeking work - the part-timers who want more hours as well as those who tell the interviewers in the household survey that while they are not currently job hunting, they would take a job if one came along.
Many early retirees and self-employed consultants would also like to have jobs, but since they tell the interviewers that they are retired or self-employed, they are not counted in calculating the "labor underutilization rate." If even some who fit that description were included, that rate would rise above 10 percent, economists say.