Skip to the Main Content

Note:These pages make extensive use of the latest XHTML and CSS Standards. They ought to look great in any standards-compliant modern browser. Unfortunately, they will probably look horrible in older browsers, like Netscape 4.x and IE 4.x. Moreover, many posts use MathML, which is, currently only supported in Mozilla. My best suggestion (and you will thank me when surfing an ever-increasing number of sites on the web which have been crafted to use the new standards) is to upgrade to the latest version of your browser. If that's not possible, consider moving to the Standards-compliant and open-source Mozilla browser.

September 6, 2004

Labour Day

This is, perhaps, the last Labour Day of the Bush presidency, so it behoves us to look, once again, at employment under his stewardship.

Employment ratio (5 years)

Employment, as a fraction of the working-age adult population slid from 64.4% when Bush took office, to 62.4%. (All employment statistics cited are monthly, seasonally-adjusted, figures from the Saint Louis Fed.)

Total Non-Farm Employment (5 years)

Total Non-Farm Payroll Employment slid from 132.4 million when Bush took office to a trough of 129.8 million a year ago, recovering somewhat to 131.5 million. He will leave office with the dubious distinction of being the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs, not as a fraction of population, but in absolute terms.

Meanwhile, the Federal Budget has gone from an annual surplus of $236.4 billion in FY 2000 to an annual deficit of $444.7 billion for FY 2004, with red ink as far into the future as the eye can see.

Sobering thoughts for this Labour Day.

Posted by distler at September 6, 2004 12:12 AM

TrackBack URL for this Entry:   https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/MT-3.0/dxy-tb.fcgi/430



2 Comments & 0 Trackbacks

Re: Labour Day

You’ll note that some so-called (and often self-declared) ‘conservatives’ consider high deficit a beneficial phenomenon because, according to them, it reduces federal spending.

Posted by: Phil S. on September 6, 2004 1:02 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

Re: Labour Day

Well, sir, here is my prediction:

Bush will win. Watch for an even bigger (electronic) debacle in 2004, if pre-election polls show Bush behind (if no October surprises). Stalin: “It does not matter who casts the votes, it only matters who counts them.”

dolt

Posted by: chiral dolt on September 8, 2004 9:10 AM | Permalink | Reply to this

Post a New Comment