The Department of Labor released yesterday its jobs report, claiming that 200,000 jobs were created, much more than the 150,000 needed monthly to accommodate a growing population.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate dropped from 8.7 percent to 8.5 percent. What they failed to mention was the fact that over 20 million Americans are unemployed, part-time employed, or no longer counted in the labor force.

The labor force has been traditionally 126 million workers. If we do the simple math, the unemployment rate is closer to 16 (15.87) percent overall.

Statistics can be tampered and manipulated to reveal any talking points an individual wishes to make, particularly if a lot is at stake, in this case, the re-election of a failing President. Data is revised up and down all the time in this administration (regime), particularly up, after the intended euphoria of good news has passed. To say that statistics and data reported in the past three years have been disingenuous is an understatement.

The basic unemployment data comes from a monthly survey of 60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results of the survey are extrapolated (ex·trap·o·late ...1. To infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information) to the entire U.S. labor force.

The problem is a large percentage of the unemployed are no longer counted if they have not sought work during the previous four weeks, the people no longer exist. These are the discouraged workers. When they give up searching for a job, they are out of the labor force, and the official unemployment rate declines. The magnitude of the problem is thus underestimated by the existence of this “hidden” or “disguised” unemployment.

We are in a severe cyclical unemployment phase driven by poor and inadequate economic policies of the current REGIME, the expensive prospect of Obamacare, and by federal regulations that limit and sometimes prohibit job creation.