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RUSH: Here are the numbers: 223,000 new jobs. Yay! 5.4% unemployment rate. Yay. Seven-year low. Unstated, 93 million Americans not working. The US labor force participation right is at its lowest since 1977. More people capable of working and not working in this country than since 1977, 93 million, folks.

That renders this unemployment number 5.4% utterly irrelevant and useless because that 93 million are not counted. It is assumed they’ve given up looking. And if you’re not looking for work, you’re not counted as unemployed, therefore you’re not in the unemployment rate. So we have an unemployment rate of 5.4% by virtue of the fact it doesn’t count the 93 million not working. But that’s not all.

I’m just gonna read to you from AP: “The report included signs of sluggishness.” Yes. “March’s weak job gain was revised sharply down to just 85,000 from 126,000.” What this means is, when the numbers came out in April for March, everybody was saying, “126,000 new jobs, well, it’s not the best, but we’ll take it. We’re on the upswing.”

Well, today we get this new number of 223,000 in April but, but, but it was not really that good in March. We had to move that 126,000 down to 85,000, and this 223,000 is gonna be revised down one month from today. The news media reporting this 223,000 breathlessly, they may as well just wait for one month for the revision. Let’s go to CNN. I mentioned earlier that they were ecstatic and confused at the same time. First Carol Costello and Christine Romans celebrating our roaring economy.

COSTELLO: We do start this hour with breaking news on the economy. A major sigh of relief on Wall Street today as we learn just moments ago that 223,000 jobs were added last month. Christine Romans is following the numbers as always, so tell us what it means.

ROMANS: A sigh of relief on Wall Street and a sigh of relief on Main Street, Carol. That trend here is what’s important here, that you’re creating jobs again and again. The unemployment rate here falling to the lowest in seven years, 5.4%. That’s, again, what’s important here, that the trend has been going down, down, down.


RUSH: You know, it has not. They have tried to get us to believe that there is a trend upward in hiring, but a month or two always come along to interrupt it. “It’s the trend, Carol, it’s the trend.” There is no upward trend here! Now, here they are trying to explain to each other the labor force participation right.


COSTELLO: This is the percentage of the American population considered in the labor market. This number is still too low. This number is the lowest it’s been in decades. …
Tell me that number again. You say that 65% of the population…

ROMANS: Less than 65%…

COSTELLO: …today less than 65% are not working.

ROMANS: No, this is 65% of the population, less than that in the mid-60s are considered part of the labor market. You want to see that number much, much bigger.

COSTELLO: And today it is?

ROMANS: Today it’s right down here in the mid-60s the way it was way back in the ’70s. This number is still too low. This number needs to be higher. You’re going to be hearing this a lot over the next months as we go through this 2016 presidential election.

RUSH: The number is 93 million. You guys are skirting around here with what the percentage of the labor force is, and it’s meaningless. Yeah, it’s 65%, Carol, but it needs to be much higher than that. Sixty-five percent. Not working is what it means. Well, it means 65% of the labor force is working, and that translates to 93 million not. The number is 93 million. We’re not creating jobs. Anything less than 250,000 jobs a month is not even keeping up with population growth. We’re not creating jobs. The economy is not growing, I say in frustration month after month after month.

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