Ever since the recovery from the Great Recession began more than five years ago, the most crucial missing pieces of the economic puzzle were the lack of consistently strong gains in hiring and better wages for most Americans struggling to make ends meet. Now, at last, those pieces are starting to fall into place. The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added 321,000 new jobs in November, a much stronger number than economist had predicted. . . . The New York Times 6/5/14
Fact Check: The statement above is typical of recent boosterism about the economy. Perhaps it is better than it has been in recent years, but it is still far from good. One reason is that the official unemployment rate of 5.8 percent doesn’t count people who would like to work, but have simply given up looking for employment. One indicator is that only 62.8 percent of the population over 16 is either working or looking for work. This is the lowest percentage in 36 years.
Another reason is that the official unemployment figure doesn’t include people who would like full-time employment but can only find part-time work. The New York Times article conceded, in fact, that the situation of these people, who number almost seven million, is a problem. But it did not elaborate on how significant a problem it is.
Since the beginning of the recession, the number of involuntary part-time workers has increased 50 percent. Part-time work tends to be low-paid with few or any benefits. And often the work is not steady. Almost 30 percent of involuntary part-timers are out of work for three months or longer during a year. According to one study, seventy-five percent of involuntary part-time workers live in poverty or close to it.
If people who have given up looking for work and part-time workers who want a full-time job were included as unemployed, the total—as the Times article notes—would be 11.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the doors for mass immigration remain wide open, making U.S. jobs available to foreign workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record number of foreign-born workers, totaling 25 million, now hold jobs in the U.S. That total includes both legal and illegal immigrants. President Obama’s amnesty, if unchallenged by Congress, will allow millions of illegal aliens to keep the jobs they now unlawfully occupy.
Unemployment for Americans will remain a significant problem as long as massive immigration, currently at the highest sustained level in our history, continues. Its chief beneficiaries, economic interests that want cheap labor and political interests that want cheap votes, care little about the needs and concerns of working Americans.