The Unemployment Battle

--> By Jonathan Edelstien

We see that the presidential election is coming up with both candidates standing off on who will be the  “victor” as President.  Although most issues such as immigration and foreign policy is conflicted in our country, unemployment in the United States is a large issue due to the fact that it correlates to our countries economy and it is on the minds of a lot of citizens in this nation.  There will be certain problems of unemployment that each candidate will need to solve.

Our President, Barack Obama, explain how he will tackle this situation of unemployment in our country.  The Obama Plan, which is an attempt to restore our unemployment problem, is explained that there will be an investment in education, small businesses, clean energy, infrastructure, and tax cuts for companies that bring jobs back to the U.S.  This will create a more economic opportunity for the businesses created in by the citizens of the U.S.
 

As the months passed an October came by, a series of debate from the vice president and the president came on.  People were tuning in to what the candidates are saying and wondering on how they were to compact with the issues that worry them.  At this moment in time, news about the unemployment rate came on mentioning that the unemployment rate had dropped to a whole 7.80% just in a short time before the presidential elections. 

As Obama had the upper hand in the situation, Mitt Romney still needed to try to keep a “fair game” about how he will deal with unemployment if he gets elected for president.  Ignoring the fact that jobs rose in, Mitt Romney planned to create 250,000 jobs per month.  He is mostly concerned with the middle-class, decreasing in the United States demographic, because the middle-class is able to create a majority of the employment rate and as middle-class shrinks so does the rate of jobs in this country.

In conclusion, both candidates give a fair share and a hard choice to the American people of who they want to vote for.  Both of our candidates are helpful with the fact with dealing with unemployment rate.  Although, this is true, we still need to see on how the next President would be able to confront our problem and to see whether he will destroy or rebuild employment rate in the United States.

References

Rugabe C. (October 2012) Unemployment Rate rises to 8.3% As a U.S. Adds 163,000 Jobs in July:BLS http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/unemployment-rate-jobs-report-bls_n_1736843.html

Is The Lower Unemployment Rate Fact or Fiction

     By: Candice Rosario

         For the first time since President Obama took office, the unemployment rate is below 8.00%. Mitt Romney argues that the rate has only gone down, due to the way it is calculated. According to an online     Fox news article by Chris Liable (2012) Romney places unemployment rates at above 11%. President Obama sees the lower unemployment rate as a sign of slow and steady progress. The candidates have different views on the reasons behind the decreased rate of unemployment. What could be viewed as the most accurate explanation?                                                                


Mitt Romney’s explanation of the lower unemployment rate lies in his argument of how unemployment is calculated. He specifically calls into account “The Labor Force Participation Rate”. The answer to the question of “What is the Labor Force Participation Rate?” I found at About.com written by Mike Moffat (2012) : “The labor force participation rate is the percentage of working-age persons in an economy who:
So what is in fact the truth in regards to the lower unemployment rate?  As far as month to month progress of the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate for the year 2012 the actual numbers from August to September where 63.5 and 63.6. What this means is the number of people actively working or looking for work was actually up by .1%.  So in fact the new unemployment rate is accurate and was not affected by the labor force participation rate.

Are employed

Are unemployed but looking for a job”

Based on this information, Mitt Romney’s explanation of the lower unemployment rate is that, less people are looking for jobs. Therefore they are not being accounted into the equation being used by the department of labor to calculate unemployment rates. If less people are being accounted for and the amount of jobs being filled are relatively the same as the month before, than it would seem like more people are employed and this would seem like an accurate account of how unemployment rates went down.

         
        President Obama seemed to view the new lower unemployment rate with optimism and a sign that the economy is headed in the right direction.  He did however acknowledge in an article that appeared in WSJ.com written by Laura Meckler and Danny Yadron (2012) [that]: “Today’s news certainly is not an excuse to try and talk down the economy to score a few political points. It’s a reminder this country has come too far to turn back now.” This statement definitely seems to give the impression that although progress has been seen this month; the unemployment rate is far from where it needs to be in order for our economy to be considered in recovery.

         
         In essence what each candidate is stating is their own version of the truth. After reviewing the “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey” (Bureau of Labor Statistics Data), I was able to see the labor force participation rates from the year 2002- present.  Mitt Romney is correct in his statement that if the number of people looking for work were the same as when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be at about 11%. That is because in 2009 the labor force participation rate was between 65.7 and 64.6. What this means is a lot more people were looking for jobs then, than there are now in 2012.  President Obama’s version of the facts is also correct in how they pertain to the current numbers in the forms of unemployment rates and the labor force participation rate.  

 References

Laible, C. (2012, October 08). Romney gives alternate reason for drop in

unemployment rate. Fox News. Retrieved from

politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/10/08/Romney-gives-alternate-reason-

drop-unemployment-rate

Moffatt, M. (2012). What is the labor force participation rate? Retrieved

from economics.about.com/od/unemploymentrate/f/labor_force.htm

Meckler, L., & Yadron, D. (2012, October 5). Obama, Romney focus on

unemployment report. WSJ.com. Retrieved from

online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087239639044422310457803855165043517

8.html?mod=Googlenews_wsj

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data, Databases, Tables & Calculators by

Subject. (2012). Labor force statistics from the current population survey

[Graphs]. Retrieved from data.bls.gov/time series/LNS11300000/

Move Over Obama and Romney, Jeremy Epstein Is In The House

As the Presidential Debates Continue, heated discussion concerning our economy, the middle class, and unemployment, reached some new and not-so-subtle arguing points between the two candidates. During Tuesday's debate, Governor Romney was on the defensive. According to CBS and Newsday, the public felt that Romney began to "Interrupt" President Obama when discussing certain heated topics. The president was reciprocating and standing his ground, but in a way that seemed more subtle than Governor Romney. An interesting point in the night that resonated with younger voters, occurred when Adelphi University Junior, Jeremy Epstein, raised the question of How the candidates could reassure him that he, among other college students, would be able to find a job after graduation. This spiked an unexpected trend in the 'Twitterverse' and other social media websites. Jeremy, an undecided, first-time voter was the youngest person asking questions at the debate. He says in a Newsday article, "I'm representing a whole other group of people my age, people who are facing the exact same problems, who are worried if they're going to be able to move out of their parent's house and support themselves sufficiently." Apparently, Jeremy managed to strike the right chord among young voters and social media users. He got his deserving fifteen minutes.

Link to full article: Jeremy Epstein

Things May Be Looking Up...

Things seem to be looking upward, there has been claims that the job opportunity has significantly increased within the last couple of days. Unemployment aid is the lowest it has ever been in the last 4 years. Some may say it could be caused by seasonal changes, but this could change within the next couple of months after things have settled. Numbers have shown that there has been less than 330,000 unemployment applications and this is incomparably different from the claims of 2008. Some say, this can be Obama’s saving grace. His poll numbers dropped after the presidential debate, consequently leaving the public with a numbing brain sensation, as if getting hit with a frying pan. This Comes to show, anything is possible during the election time. Its all a game of he said she said. Anything can happen and for the majority of the time people remain with whom they decide to vote for but one little mishap or bump on the road can either lead them to to reach the summit or on the side of the rode. At this point Obama may have the upper hand, our economy and job opportunity is moving very slowly. Now, impressing the public on how the changes have improved out of nowhere. Lets just hope its not just a seasonal fluke. I believe it takes time to fix the economic crisis, whoever is elected, will have to continue to improve what we see now and prove that this little bit of change is actually not a cast on chance.

Bad News for Romney

Just this month the unemployment rate dropped a whole 0.3%, from 8.1% to 7.8%.  This looks like a great breakthrough for the country but bad luck for our candidate Mitt Romney.  Just last week was the Presidential debate for both Romney and Obama.  By the end of the debate, it looks as if that the favor won against Mitt Romney.  Yet in a sudden turn of events our country faced with a decent drop from the unemployment rating.  This would turn out bad for Romney then expected from Americans, giving a great "head start" for President Obama in the 2012 election.  We will have to see next month on what the people will choose and the next four years with the next president running the United States.

The Unemployment Benefit Application

In an article of the Washington Post, it discusses the unemployment rate is rising in the United States, leading to another .1% in the unemployment ratings.  With people unskilled, they are mostly dependent on unemployment benefit applications rather then looking for a job themselves.  As America is focused more on jobs, people of the unemployment demographic are seeking unemployment benefits and many private employers are expanding their options to creating jobs in our country.  Although with a slight increase in creating jobs, there is still a larger demographic problem concerning this issue: People seek more unemployment benefits then just looking for jobs

Obama and Romney vs. China in Ohio

Being forthcoming with information on how President Obama, and his rival Mitt Romney plan to improve unemployment rates and stimulate job creation has been very vague during both of their campaigns. This still holds true on the issue of outsourcing and currency manipulation by China. The candidates where both campaigning in Ohio when Mitt Romney declared ”one thing I will do from day one is label China a currency manipulator. They must not steal jobs in an unfair way.” The way he would go about this is to implement policies that would make it more favorable for businesses to stay in America. This statement definitely alludes to his “Believe In America”. Labor policy which seeks to implement legislation that would make America more attractive to potential investors and in his view give America a competitive edge. On the Obama front his administration goes on the record declaring “China has illegally subsidized automotive exports and undercut American suppliers.” The President then goes on to call Romney “disingenuous” and called him out on his years of profiting from these same tactics.  While both of these candidates state the issues and what they each view as problems none of them is willing to give a real solution as to how they will fix it. I hope tonight’s impending debates will give us some real insight as to what each candidate is actually going to do once he is in office. To further study this issue CNN has expanded on: Obama, Romney clash on China, taxes in Ohio battleground