By Robert Romano Since Dec. 1949 through 2012, the noninstitutional civilian population as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has grown an average 1.35 percent every year, while the civilian labor force has grown even faster at 1.47 percent. This reflects rising labor participation — the percent of the population either working or looking for work — from a [...]

By Rick Manning The headlines read that the nation’s unemployment rate for April hit 7.5 percent.  But the real story behind the headline is that America is becoming a society of labor drop outs.  These charts using just released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics have been compiled to help you look behind the headlines at our nation’s unemployment [...]

By Bill Wilson — It has been four years and two months since the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” the so-called “stimulus,” was signed into law on Feb. 17, 2009. That day, Barack Obama told the American people he was keeping his campaign promise that he would “do all that I could to give every American the chance to make [...]

Applying for benefits? Veterans often wait much longer for assistance than those requesting Medicaid- and often by a mile. Sources: Medicaid Eligibility Determinations: http://www.gao.gov/assets/650/649788.pdf Veterans Affairs Averages: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612900-budget-performance-split.html

By Bill Wilson — 663,000 Americans dropped out of the workforce last month. 206,000 fewer Americans were employed. 290,000 more Americans were unemployed. Yet, the headline will be that the unemployment rate dropped in March to 7.6 percent. Never has the lie of the improving Obama economy ever been more starkly revealed than in today’s March unemployment report, where the [...]

By Bill Wilson – Will state and local governments add 220,000 jobs in 2013? That’s what chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi is suggesting in a recent report by Bloomberg News. “Their payrolls in the fourth quarter will be 220,000 larger than in the same period for 2012, he projects,” states the report. There is only one problem. According [...]

NRD Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared at TheHill.com. By Rick Manning — Perhaps it is time for Congress to zero out the budget of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency of the Department of Labor whose data is so important to financial markets that figuring out how to protect it against its early release has become a major [...]

By Bill Wilson — 122,000 fewer Americans had jobs in November than in October, yet the government reports that the unemployment rate declined to 7.7 percent.  This simple fact is why the unemployment rate has become one of the least relevant economic statistics that the federal government releases.  Instead of being a benchmark for the nation’s employment situation, the unemployment [...]

By Kevin Mooney – With Obamacare set to go into effect this coming January, the small-and medium sized business that typically create most of the new jobs will be at a severe disadvantage. That’s because the new federal health care law includes provisions that discourage companies from growing their operations to the point where they have over 49 employees. Once [...]

By Rebekah Rast — Remember back in 2010, when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed that unemployment benefits create jobs faster than most any other program? To jog your memory, Pelosi said: “It injects demand into the economy.  It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.” It seems the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) backs her statement [...]