Man, life in Obamaville gets tougher by the day. First, the man who rose to prominence thanks to the tech savviness of his handlers finds that his signature legislation — the law that will define his legacy — is a technological nightmare of epic proportions. (Moral: he who lives by the double-edge sword of technology dies, etc.)
Now, September job numbers are out and contain more grim news for the man who sees himself as the savior of womankind.
Terrence Jeffreys writes at CNS News:
American women participated in the nation’s labor force in September at a rate that matched the lowest level in 24 years, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At the same time, the number of women actually holding jobs declined by 154,000 from August to September.
The all-important labor force participation rate (a statistic that this administration has historically tried to sweep under the rug in its reactions to monthly BLS reports) was 57.4% in July and 57.3% in August. In the report that came out today, the participation rate had dropped another two ticks in September, to 57.1%. The last time the percentage was that low was February 1989.
The BLS has been tracking the participation of women in the U.S. labor force since 1948. In January 1948, 32.0 percent of the non-institutionalized female U.S. population over the age of 16 participated in the labor force. That percentage generally climbed over five decades, peaking at 60.3 percent in April 2000.
Since, however, the decline in the number females in the civilian labor force was greater than the decline in number of females actually holding jobs, the unemployment rate for women actually dropped a tenth of a percent, from 6.8% in August to 6.7% in September. Expect to hear more about that achievement when the White House gives its upbeat remarks on the “recovery.”
