White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today suggested that there was too much focus on the unemployment rate, wisecracking that average people aren’t sitting at home staring at the Labor Department website to see the latest employment numbers. Carney argued that they have other things to worry about in addition to jobs.
From the White House pool report:
Unemployment numbers. (Carney) said: “We know most people (are) not sitting at home clicking refresh on the BLS website,” they’re instead concerned with their own practical problems at home, including employment but not limited to it.
Carney instead sought to switch the focus from Friday’s disastrous employment report, which showed the economy only created 96,000 jobs, to the the fact that job creation remains in positive territory, even is it generally has lagged behind the numbers needed to keep up with population growth.
Jay added that this is the 30th straight month that country has created jobs. Said the “recession was not that long ago, so not asking people to look back to the 70s and 80s but to compare Republican proposals to four years ago, that’s what GOP wants to go back to.
“We never react too happily to the jobs reports that exceed expectations, or the ones that come below, because we are focused on trends.”
Carney spoke in Florida, where President Obama is campaigning.
59 thoughts on “Carney: Too Much Obsession With Employment Numbers”
Carmey is such a tool . . .
and he also has a job, hopefully not for long, so we can have jobs as well.
Carney cooksalipskint.
I hear Revlon has an excellent shade of pink for this pig of an economy.
They focus on trends? Except for the trend that the employment situation is worse this year than last.
It no longer is a trend – it’s a life style for 23 million.
Sadie I agree. Increasingly I am beginning to suspect that those-largely but not all former white collar workers -who moved from unemployment onto disability have moved into the Obama camp. Many people perhaps have adjusted to reduced circumstances and for a variety of reasons-fear.loss of confidence.despair-cannot see their way out. America works when people fight to keep their freedoms – not their benefits. A wounded and and neutered populace is a leftist’s dream.
grace, the progressives insured themselves a solid D- base as in “debased” in 1965 with the “Great (not-so) Society” programs. What we are witnessing is another variation of it – no jobs and worse yet, we’ve got millions on capital “d” Disability and Defeat.
Indeed, a leftist’s dream.
Snot nose.
Carney is sooooo out of touch with the world……..
Ignorant, out of touch, heartless, souless, clueless, lying SOB.
You are so right, srdem. There was a time I felt sorry for this stooge having to lie for his supper. Silly me, thinking there was a tiny bit of humanity in the man.
He’s a broken needle on a polygraph – If he was wired to [one] both Carney and the machine would explode.
You’re too kind really. The American people are growing very weary of
being taken for fools. He wishes we weren’t paying attention but
somebody better tell Sparky we are paying a lot of attention. We ‘folks’
are pissed sorry but we passed peeved.
Lizzy – love it!
You conjucated the past tense of peeved perfectly.
Note to self: Do not try to repeat above sentence 3x at any speed. : )
Jay must have watched the Dem convention that convinced us we’re consumed over abortion and free contraception rights. Yep, that’s right, it’s what we ALL wake up thinking about every morning and last thing on our minds before we go to bed. Jobs and economy are for sissies, real people worry about stupid stuff. Oh wait, those would be the Obama people !
I haven’t worried about contraception in over 30 years since I had a tubal ligation after my third born. D’oh Jay.
There just aren’t words……
Well, there are words, at least quite a few that come to my mind at the moment. If I type what I’m thinking, though, Keith will have to ban me from the site.
Snark. So true for both of us. If the net has taught me anything, it has pushed me into cleaning up my language and the art of verbal camouflauge.
Guess it makes their disastrous record not so noticeable when he brags about 30 straight months of job creation. I’ve got a better one for him – 43 straight months of 8%+ unemployment, and that’s even with Obama fudging the BLS numbers.
Yeah, there’s too much focus on unemployment numbers when the democrats are responsible for them. If we had a republican administration you can be sure that even laser-like focus wouldn’t be intense enough for the hypocritical left.
Nothing to see here, move along…nothing to see.
“Focused on trends.” HaHa. Ah the little pipsqueak actually opens his piehole and inserts foot. What a twit, just like his arrogant anti-american boss.
Can someone please pas me the &*@%!# duct tape?
And maybe some blood pressure meds….
pas = pass
(momentarily blinded by rage and frustration over here)
Thanks for the reminder. I didn’t notice the missing “s”, probably because I am so focused on the current ass.
Oh, Jay, you are such a card. As you sit at home watching sports or something on your flatscreen built-in, funniest thing–my daughter and I had a major meltdown over how to get the shoes she needs for the uniform of the first job (food service) she has been able to get in 5 yrs. Takes money to make money–bet it sounds really quaint to you that even when you get a job it takes money we no longer have. I know this sounds pathetic, but you overprivileged and over celebrated people over there have no clue. NO CLUE! And when your boss struts around spouting half-truths and 100% lies it makes me sick. “Not what we hoped…” I would say not.
As for clicking refresh on the BLS website– CLICK THIS!
As for the hope thing–someone was quoted as saying you can get elected on hope, but not re-elected. I hope with every fiber of my being that his true.
While off topic, still an interstng read a friend of mine sent me. It’s a good thing the government will/is fixing this kind of problem. Ha!
http://teapartyeconomist.com/2012/09/07/stung-by-a-scorpion-then-by-a-hospital/
Sent from my iPhone
That is out here–where I live–Chandler AZ. Every time someone I love goes to that hospital–I have a long letter of complaint! They know me there. This is ridiculous. But typical of that place. Every time I write a letter, I get one back from the chief of staff saying they did everything well. Sometimes they certify it.
The hospital said she was charged such a high price because she went “out of network” and they don’t have a contract with Humana, her insurance company. At times of life threatening emergencies people don’t have the luxury of seeking an “in-network” facility. It’s outrageous they’d charge nearly $36k more for a drug than their actual cost, just because the patient was out of network. Chandler is owned by a Catholic organization. I always thought religious hospitals would walk the walk but apparently they don’t.
Not that one. Mom was in there within this last month–her final illness. The ambulance co (they want $900 and this is with a plan) insisted she had to go there bec it was a Stroke Center–they never even mentioned stroke for the first 8 hrs, no one would talk to us, old ladies are treated like drek. When they did admit her, they said we can’t feed her unless you agree to a radioactive swallowing test–we had turned down the obligatory MRI, etc. That test turned out to be thousands–otherwise, no Jell-O for her! Oh, man, I can’t even talk about this…
So sorry about your mom, Star.
He is just like his boss and the dummy before him.STUPIDI have gotten to where I cannot watch anything him or Odummer say.
Carney said there was too much focus on the unemployment numbers. Betcha there’s MORE focus in the WH and the Obamao campaign.
There is another good piece written by Wynton Hall in Breitbart, under the title “Beneath the surface of Friday’s jobs report lies the reality of just how disastrous the Obama economy truly is”.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/08/Real-Unemployment-Now-19
Let’s see if Mr. Clinton can massage those numbers.
Only 69% of men over 18 are currently employed.
There are 5 MILLION fewer jobs than when Obama became President.
There are nearly 89 MILLION out of work who have ‘given up looking for work (the U6).
The 8.1% rate (the U1) only applys to those unemployed 4 weeks or less.
July’s (U1) number were downgraded by 41,000.
If you look at 166 million people on the tax roles as workers that file or eligible to file taxes and 23 million unemployed you actually have 13.% unemployment.
We are being lied to…
America is not obsessed enough! America must unite one more time and reclaim our birthrights. This year ABO. Obama must be fired for dereliction of duty.
America was # 1 in Global Competitiveness when Obama became president – we are now # 7 ! Obama and his BLS (To which he appointed 2 men without congressional approval by executive order while congress was in session, no less) manipulate employment numbers. Anyone working in a temp agency is considered a new job created if the agency sends them to a new location. it is semantics, not reality.
This list of all this presidents infamous firsts must be shown to America until everyone understands the full extent of Obama’s transformational change on America.:
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/06/president-barack-obamas-complete-list.html
Obama is also the first illegitimate POTUS with a father who was not a U. S, citizen. He never should have been allowed to step foot in the Oval Office for security reasons.
Girly1, I remember Dick Morris saying that Obama never would have been able to pass security clearance to work for the Federal government because of his affiliation with Bill Ayers. Yet here we are and nobody did anything to stop it.
AZ Granny – The “nobody” list are not just D’s. We emptied out some of the bad R’s in 2010, but we’ve got a long road ahead.
I totally agree, Sadie. Hopefully in Nov. more are sent packing.
yeah. . .cause, seriously, who cares about having a job these days. Pffft . . .
Carney is absolutely correct that Americans are not sitting at home watching the latest BLS statistics. And the certainly aren’t at home watching this idiot blather on and on.
Instead, they’re at home worrying about 1) paying their bills, 2) what to do if they lost their job, 3) whether or not they can afford to go out for dinner, 4) whether their children will be better off than they are, and 5) for the 50% of recent college graduates who don’t have jobs, they wonder whether going to college was really worth it.
With the new employment data showing that most new job creation was in low-paying, going-nowhere jobs, it would appear that 1) they may not be able to pay all of their bills, 2) they don’t know what they’d do if they lost their job, 3) they probably will not go out to dinner tonight, 4) they definitely won’t be better off than their parents, and 5) no, a college degree wasn’t worth it for most Americans.
Obama and Carney are definitely far better off than they were four years ago. But this election isn’t about ‘their’ welfare. No. It’s about each American’s own welfare, and that of their children and grandchildren. In this regard, only village idiots, slackers and those who are mathematically challenged would not be concerned.
Move along, nothing to see here!
Anyone notice that they also revised the last unemployment numbers upwards? Jay Carney wants to talk about trends, one very noticable trend is that this is very common. Release a unemployment report with fanfare that could (at least for Obamabots) suggest the “private sector’s doing fine”, then LATER, when no one’s paying attention, revise it upwards (closer to the truth).
Obama lying. THAT’S the REAL trend.
Also, every month when they revise the job number down, you never see a corresponding adjustment to the unemployment number. It stays frozen on the published number.
Hmmmm…ya think that 40 straight months of unemployment above 8% might be the start of a trend, Carney?
Desperately searching for a message that works. Obama is trying “even that famous independent thinker Bill Clinton said that this would take many years to get out of”.
lol wow really yeah they have other things to worry bout like food bills so obsession with numbers is really reflection on the lack of jobs unemployed many have become frustrated and given up
“wisecracking that average people aren’t sitting at home staring at the Labor Department website to see the latest employment numbers.”
He’s right, they’re not. They don’t have to. They know how bad employment numbers are from personal experience, from friends and neighbors, from family. The numbers simply confirm what they already know: nearly a third of all Americans are not working.
I have a question–how to they know someone gave up? Is there some giant group therapy session going on someplace.
I was wondering the same thing Star…nobody asked me my job status lately!
Jay needs to be unemployed.
Carney is such a racist and ageist. If he was a minority or over 50 he would “get” how unemployment really is a huge deal.
Of course, they don’t want us “obsessing” over those horrible numbers. We should just go about our day to day duties and forget how terribly Obama has wrecked things!
Oh yeah. People are worried about ‘other things’…like paying the bills because they don’t have a job. Buying groceries because they don’t have a job. Maintaining their car – because they don’t have a job. Making rent – because they don’t have a job. The quality of their children’s education – because they don’t have a job. Repaying student loans – because they don’t have a job.
Sensing a pattern here, Mr. Carney?
“We never react too happily to the jobs reports that exceed expectations, or the ones that come below, because we are focused on trends.”
umm…. you just did.
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Jay Carney you need to wake up. You stop obsessing about the numbers that are not happening. Instead why don’t you concentrate on what really is happening. Then maybe you might be informed. Come out of your office into the streets, not Washington, DC, but New Orleans, and other run down neighborhoods and listen to the people. You will be greatly surprised.
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