89 Million Americans “Not in Labor Force,” Congress Shrugs; Pushes Amnesty

One of the longest running but unfunny jokes on Capitol Hill is the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment report. According to the BLS, in February the U.S. economy gained 236,000 jobs and unemployment dropped to 7.7 percent, the lowest level since December 2008. The unemployment rate fantasy generated skepticism from the normally compliant mainstream media—with good reason. [Unemployment Rate Drops to 7.7 Percent; How Real Is Job Market Progress? by Mark Trumbull, Christian Science Monitor, March 8, 2013]

On its homepage last week, CAPS’ posted a story which exposed the ugly facts that face struggling Americans.  Reporter Elizabeth Harrington wrote that as of February, the numbers of Americans “not in the labor force” stood at 89 million, a record high and an increase of 296,000 between January and February. [Record 89,304,000 ‘Not in Labor Force,’ 296,000 Fewer Employed Since January, by Elizabeth Harrington, CNS News, March 8, 2013]

These 89 million individuals have stopped looking for work and have misleadingly disappeared from the government’s radar screen.  Wall Street analysts took a more brutal but therefore also more realistic view of American employment. As the Street sees it, the true unemployment rate is 11.8 and the U-6 which includes under-employment is 18 percent.

Crunching the numbers further, the BLS reported that as of February 10.4 million native-born Americans were jobless. If 150,000 jobs were to be created every month, it would take six years to put them back to work.

February’s record-breaking level of American unemployment should have set off five-alarm sirens in Congress. If nothing else, Congress should launch a serious review of admitting an unsustainable 90,000 legal immigrants each month, a policy that from the looks of things will continue in perpetuity.

Inviting more than one million legal immigrants annually is only part of the American job destruction pattern. Since January, Congress has been in full bore mode to pass an amnesty bill that would give instant work authorization to 11 million illegal aliens.

Defying logic, both the Senate and the House are working to introduce legislation by April. In the meantime, the Gang of Eight—amnesty’s biggest movers and shakers—have made defiant but unsupportable comments. One of the gang, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, tweeted “It’s important for our country to solve the illegal immigration issue once and for all.” [Graham: Immigration Reform Must Be Dealt with ‘Once and For All,’ by Cameron Joseph, The Hill, November 8, 2012]

Yet in South Carolina, Graham’s constituents are unconvinced and indignant. In December, 180,000 South Carolinians looked for work without success, an 8.6 percent U-3 unemployment rate. More broadly, 360,000 South Carolinians fall into the discouraged worker category meaning they have abandoned their job searches and are among the 89 million Americans who have given up. The South Carolina U-6 unemployment rate is 15.8 percent.

Filmmaker Dennis Lynch traveled to South Carolina to interview locals about their unemployment plight. Disappointed and shocked at Graham’s betrayal, they told Lynch their personal stories about long-term unemployment and their waning prospects. Watch Lynch’s video here.

See a clip from Lynch’s previous documentary, "They Come to America: the Cost of Illegal Immigration," here. Buy the video here.