Has Life Imitated The Onion Yet Again?

Y-Not points out this old Onion piece, spinning unemployment as a positive:

Labor Dept: Available Labor Rate Increases To 10.2%

WASHINGTON—In what is being touted by the Labor Department as extremely positive news, the nation's available labor rate has reached double digits for the first time in 26 years, bringing the total number of potentially employable Americans to an impressive 15.7 million.

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Hilda Solis briefs the press corps on the unprecedented level of untapped manpower.
"This is such an exciting time to be an employer in America," said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, adding that every single day 6,500 more citizens join America's growing possible workforce. "There's such a massive and diverse pool of job-ready Americans to choose from. And each month the number only gets higher."

"While our current available labor rate of 10.2 percent isn't quite as robust as it was in 1982 or 1933, we're happy to say that reaching that benchmark is no longer out of the realm of possibility," Solis continued.

According to the Department of Labor's report, nearly 200,000 more Americans suddenly became fully hirable in October alone. And November saw unprecedented gains in the number of high-quality auto workers, teachers, lawyers, part-time retailers, and even doctors who could be employed.

Where did the Onion go wrong? Their prediction was spin from the Labor Department, which could be expected.

But they shot too low. The actual spin comes chiefly from the media itself, pushing stories about "funemployment," how recessions/depressions are great if you have a job because everyone's so desperate prices fall, and as Time (I think) put it recently, the good side of rising unemployment.

posted by Ace at 01:59 PM

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