The republicans are crowing about the Bush administration creating 6.6 million new jobs over 6 years, let's take a look at that.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures employment in two ways. The Establishment Survey gathers data directly from 400,000 companies and then estimates how many Americans have payroll jobs. The Household Survey, based on surveys of 60,000 households, determines how many people are working and produces the unemployment rate.
Occasionally, the two surveys show divergent trends in job growth--especially when an economy is coming out of recession. According to the payroll survey, the number of jobs fell 232,000 over the course of 2003 on a seasonally adjusted basis. But according to the Household Survey, which includes farm workers, the self-employed, and people who may work off the books, the number of Americans working rose by 1.03 million in 2003 on a seasonally adjusted basis.
No wonder Bush had to be dragged kicking and screaming to stop illegal immigration. He counts farm workers in the employment statistics. This brings up a point about the kinds of jobs that are being created. While high paying jobs with benefits are being shipped out of the country they are being replaced with low paying jobs with no benefits. Jobs at Walmart and fast food outlets are not the kind of career choices that you can support a family on. Also there has been no effort by the administration to stop illegal immigration or to crack down on businesses that hire illegals. Wages especially in the building trades have fallen dramatically due to illegal workers. The republican party is claiming immigration as their issue but they have done absolutely nothing to protect American jobs.
The other category where bush claims great strides is the number of self employed people has risen on his watch. Barry Ritholtz, chief market strategist at Maxim Group has suggested, they're self-employed because they're unemployed. Self employed can mean anything to the Bush administration, selling items on eBay or collecting cans on the side of the road.
The last myth of economic success is the record DOW. It looks great until you consider who invests in the stocks traded on the DOW, all the people that got big tax cuts under Bush.
Republicans will tell you that by investing in stocks the wealthy create jobs, hogwash. Coming out of the other side of their mouth is that middle class tax cuts drive the economy by encouraging spending, that is closer to the truth, but notice the difference. Tax cuts to high income earners get invested and earn more income for the recipient of the tax cut, on the other hand lower income people need to spend the money they receive to stimulate the economy. Let's not forget that by spending that money you are also generating even more income for the wealthy in profits.
The republicans are telling American workers to trust them, after all who knows more about how to make money than the wealthy business class. Just keep in mind how they got wealthy, by convincing the working class to work for the lowest wages possible, importing foreign workers to further drive down wages, and investing not buying.
It's time to start looking for candidates that believe in preserving jobs and wages, don't waste your time looking in the republican party.