They are taking gaslighting to a whole new level in 2024. The raw, unadjusted figures that the Bureau of Labor Statistics just released say that the U.S. economy lost more than 2.6 million jobs last month. That is what actually happened. But after they massaged that number with all sorts of “assumptions” and “adjustments”, it magically turned into a gain of 353,000 jobs. Amazingly, even Fox Business is attempting to claim that this adjusted number shows “the resilience of the labor market”…
U.S. job growth unexpectedly surged in January, underscoring the resilience of the labor market even in the face of high interest rates and stubborn inflation.
Employers added 353,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said in its monthly payroll report released Friday, easily topping the 180,000 gain forecast by Refinitiv economists. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%, against expectations for a slight increase.
Give me a break.
I am so disappointed in Fox Business.
And they actually interviewed an “expert” that was so excited about “how widespread the hiring has become”…
“So much for the cooling labor market,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union. “The best part of the blockbuster number is how widespread the hiring has become. … This shows a growing labor market reflecting a broad-based economic expansion, and not just recoveries in a few sectors such as health care and government.”
Seriously?
With all of the layoffs that are taking place all around us, you are going to try to convince us that what we can see with our own eyes is not real?
Thankfully, there are other news outlets that are telling the truth.
For example, the following comes from an excellent piece posted by Zero Hedge entitled “Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History”…
And speaking of seasonal adjustments, the January print was all seasonals, because while the seasonally adjusted payrolls was up 353K, the unadjusted was down 2.635 million, a 3 million jobs delta.
In other words, just a 10% error rate in the seasonal adjustment (roughly where it falls) would wipe out the entire gain and make January increase a decline.
The U.S. economy loses a certain number of seasonal jobs every January.
I get that.
But to magically turn a loss of more than 2.6 million jobs into a gain of 353,000 jobs is just ludicrous.
Right now, we are witnessing mass layoffs all over America, and most of the positions that are being eliminated are not seasonal positions.
According to Intellizence.com, last month the following companies announced that they would by laying off at least 1,000 workers…
-Microsoft
-Citigroup
-eBay
-Corning Inc.
-Macy’s
-Wayfair
-Bosch
-Unity Software
-GDI Integrated Facilities Services
-Xerox
Of course those layoffs represent just a small portion of the enormous tsunami of layoffs that is now happening from coast to coast.
As I discussed last week, Challenger, Gray & Christmas just issued a report which says that the number of layoffs in the U.S. increased by 136 percent from December to January.
At this point, everyone should just stop paying attention to the absurd numbers that the government puts out that have been radically adjusted to make certain politicians look good.
No, the U.S. economy did not add 353,000 jobs last month.
Instead, it actually lost 2.635 million jobs.
In the days ahead, I am sure that I am going to have to explain this again and again.
Because there are a whole lot of people out there that believe whatever their televisions tell them to believe.
If you are one of the workers that has been laid off in recent weeks, I am sorry for your loss.
Unfortunately, many more workers will lose their jobs during the coming months, and that will especially be true once World War III really starts ramping up.
On Friday, U.S. forces hit more than 80 targets inside Iraq and Syria…
At 4:00 p.m. (EST) Feb. 02, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. U.S. military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States.
The airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions. The facilities that were struck included command and control operations centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces.
The Russians were so concerned about this that they called for a special session of the UN Security Council.
Over the weekend, the U.S. military turned their attention to the Houthis in Yemen…
On Sunday the Pentagon said its forces again struck an anti-ship cruise missile launch position in Yemen. A US Central Command (CENTCOM) statement said the operation was conducted in “self defense” against a Houthi cruise missile “prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea” at 4 a.m. local time on Sunday.
This follows on the heels of a much bigger wave of strikes Saturday, which involved the US coalition attacking over 30 targets across 13 locations from air and ships, including using F/A-18 fighter jets.
This is such a “dangerous moment” for the Middle East.
One wrong move could potentially spark a major escalation, and international supply chains have already been greatly disrupted by the chaos in the Red Sea.
The U.S. economy is rapidly moving in the wrong direction, and the conflicts that are currently percolating around the globe threaten to throw this new economic crisis into overdrive.
When the final numbers for the first quarter of 2024 come out, I think that there is a very good chance that they could show that the U.S. economy has entered recession territory.
But I am also convinced that the first quarter of 2024 will be the best quarter of the entire year for our economy, because I believe that a tremendous amount of turmoil is ahead.
Events are already beginning to spiral out of control, and by the time we get to the election in November things will look far different than they do today.
Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
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