Inside Job Numbers: Temporary Jobs Count

Something about jobs numbers that no one ever talks about, that is, assuming they're even aware of this.

Temporary jobs count!

Democrats play the role of Republicans in this debate today. Just as they talk about Obama's record breaking stock market as evidence of his prowess in managing the recovery, so too do they cite his job numbers. So much cheerleading, they try to quash any analysis of the numbers. But they should because they're missing something really distorted about the recovery: temporary jobs count. The lesson we lose when we ignore this aspect of job numbers (more important than underemployment IMO) is the disdain corporations have for labor. Specifically, they go to great lengths to deny workers what labor fought for 100 years ago: a living wage and benefits. What happened to those $25/hr jobs? Why are workers making $14/hr? Are employers really not willing to pay that wage? Actually, those $14 jobs are in fact $25/hr paid by the employer. The difference ($11) being paid directly to the staffing agency.

If only Democrats could put down their pom poms and talk about temporary jobs as a symptom of something terribly wrong rather than, as MSM portrays it, a positive economic indicator, they can expose the "free market" gig economic policies of conservatives.

But they (Democrats) can't, because it's a football game, a their side is winning right now.