Census Bureau’s Household Survey: Only 16,000 New Jobs Added in August

I’m following up on my earlier post on the Bureau of Labor Statistics August jobs report. The economy added an anemic 142,000 jobs, according to data gathered from payroll statistics. The payroll report is also referred to as the establishment report, the one that gets the headlines on the first Friday of every month.

Another August report, however, this one also from the BLS, is the Household Survey. Believe it or not, it’s grimmer than the payroll version that Wall Street wants Americans to believe. The Household report found a gain of only 16,000 new jobs. Basically, the Household report asks people a simple yes or no question: Do you have a job? That’s an entirely different question than the one the payroll survey directs to employers: Did you add jobs?

The total number of people working is more important than new jobs created. For example, a person recently hired at the local mega-mart may be working his second job. If businesses add 100,000 jobs that doesn’t necessarily mean 100,000 more people are employed.

Applying the Household Survey to the U.S. economy during the last year, Forbes found that the number of people not in the labor force has increased by 1.7 million. The U.S. has 6 million missing from the labor force; half of them are of prime working age (25-54).

Whether President Obama takes his cue from the establishment or household employment survey, they both paint the same picture. Americans are struggling to find a job or keep the one they have. Giving work permits to up to 12 million illegal aliens already living in the U.S. or importing millions more overseas workers on guest visas, as Obama favors, would add to Americans’ existing woes.

The good news is that immigration and its relationship to American workers’ earning power has finally seeped into the mainstream media. In his op-ed published by The Hill, Dick Morris, former pollster and campaign consultant, wrote that curbing immigration is the jobs and income inequality issue of our time. Morris urged Congress to “seize” the moment.

Congress is back in session; Obama has backpedaled on deferred action and with the lousy August BLS report fresh in everyone’s minds, now may be the best opportunity Americans have had in months to beat back an executive amnesty.

On behalf of American workers, go to the CAPS Action Alert page here to tell Congress to stop President Obama from expanding executive amnesty.