Ivanka Retooling for White House Exit Strategy

Presidential Advisor, sweatshop shmata merchant, book marketer, multimillionaire wife, nanny-hiring mother, retail brand and former runway model Ivanka Trump is also an hôtelièr, earning millions by renting out rooms in a publicly-owned building her Dad’s company leases in Washington. Recently, she became an administration employment coach, urging the 30 million Americans who lost jobs during the pandemic to “Find Something New,” implying that their rich daddies can find them something.

Facing her own unemployment, Ivanka is looking for “Something New” herself, possibly a reality TV show. Good choice. she’s been a cast member of the White House reality show for the past four years.

More:

“What will Ivanka Trump do next? Probably try hard to stay in the public eye,” Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian

“Goodbye, Ivanka,” Dahlia Lithwick, Slate

Related:

“Ivanka Trump obsessed with status, says former friend in tell-all essay,” Rory Carroll, The Guardian

“Six Things We Learned About Ivanka Trump From Her Ex-BFF’s Vanity Fair Essay,” Mimi Montgomery, Washingtonian

“Ivanka Boldly Highlights Trump Administration’s Big Pandemic Success,” Brian Kahn, Gizmodo Earther

“Ivanka Trump Applies for Job as Biden’s Daughter,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

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Top image (Ivanka’s book-like object) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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The Real Unemployment Rate.

The U.S. Unemployment Rate is measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an arm of the U.S. Deparment of Labor, but BLS recognizes several joblessness measures. The one you read in the media is called U3, the percentage of unemployed civilian adults actively seeking fulltime nonfarm employment. Right now, the U3 rate is 7.9%. A broader measure, U6, includes those working part-time because they can’t find full-time jobs and people who want to work and have looked for jobs anytime in the past year. The latest U6 jobless rate is 12.8%.

But those aren’t the only — or most realistic — measures of unemployment. The Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, founded by Gene Ludwig, former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, has a yardstick for U.S. functional unemployment, and it’s unnerving:

“A person who is looking for a full-time job that pays a living wage — but who can’t find one — is unemployed. If you accept that definition, the true unemployment rate in the U.S. is a stunning 26.1% ….”

“If you measure the unemployed as anybody over 16 years old who isn’t earning a living wage, the rate rises even further, to 54.6%. For Black Americans, it’s 59.2%.”

“Only 46.1% of white Americans over the age of 16 — and a mere 40.8% of Black Americans — now have a full-time job paying more than $20,000 per year.”

— “America’s true unemployment rate,” Felix Salmon, Axios

More:

Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) website

Ivanka Trump, Employment Counselor

Presidential Advisor, sweatshop shmata merchant, and former runway model Ivanka Trump is also an hôtelièr, earning millions by renting out rooms in a publicly-owned building her Dad’s company leases in Washington. But wait; now she’s an employment counselor, urging the 30 million Americans who have lost jobs during the pandemic to “Find Something New.” Maybe their rich daddies can find them something.

“Find Something New” is a great slogan. Remember it when you vote in November.

More:

“Ivanka’s Tone-Deaf Advice to Millions of Unemployed Americans: Find Something New,” Mother Jones

“Unemployed Should ‘Find Something New,’ Urge Heirs to Fred Trump’s Fortune,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“Ivanka Trump: Let The Jobless Eat Cake,” Stephen Robinson, Wonkette

“Ivanka Trump’s Find Something New career campaign is more hype than help,” Michelle Singletary, Washington Post

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Top image (Ivanka’s book-like object) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

165,000 New Jobs In April. Maybe.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced employment figures for April 2013: 165,000 new jobs. No one knows exactly what that means, but one thing is certain: This number will certainly change. Does that indicate government ineptitude or political manipulation? No.

Welcome Home Iraq Veterans

“Around 800,000 veterans are jobless, 1.4m live below the poverty line, and one in every three homeless adult men in America is a veteran. Though the overall unemployment rate among America’s 21m veterans in November (7.4%) was lower than the national rate (8.6%), for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan it was 11.1%. And for veterans between the ages of 18 and 24, it was a staggering 37.9%, up from 30.4% just a month earlier.”

“Whatever the cause, this bleak trend is occurring as the last American troops leave Iraq at the end of this year, and as more than 1m new veterans are expected to join the civilian labour force over the next four years.”

–“A hard homecoming,” The Economist

Related: USA Leaves Iraq?

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What They Want for Christmas: Jobs

Excerpts from “The Book of Jobs,” Joseph E. Stiglitz, Vanity Fair:

“There are 6.6 million fewer jobs in the United States than there were four years ago. Some 23 million Americans who would like to work full-time cannot get a job. Almost half of those who are unemployed have been unemployed long-term. Wages are falling—the real income of a typical American household is now below the level it was in 1997.”

(un)Employment Report

In a regular monthly exercise in statistical flim-flam, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the jobless numbers for November 2011.

The meaningless unemployment rate in the headlines: 8.6%, down a whopping 0.4% from last month. The real unemployment rate: 15.6% (includes people who no longer get unemployment benefits, need work but have stopped looking because it’s futile, or have only found part-time work). Some even put that real rate at 18.8. Learn more here.

(un)Employment Report: No New Jobs

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the jobless numbers for August 2011.

The official unemployment rate, the one in the headlines, is 9.1%. The real unemployment rate: 16.2% (includes people who no longer get unemployment benefits, need work but have stopped looking because it’s futile, or have only found part-time work). The official rate hasn’t changed from last month, the real rate has grown by a tenth of a percent. Learn more here.

45,000 jobs were temporarily lost in the Verizon strike, and those workers are back on the payroll this month, but the 17,000 government jobs eliminated last month are permanently gone. While 62,000 private sector jobs were added in August, this is no comfort to America’s 14 million unemployed.  More that 6 million of them have been out of work for over six months.

(un)Employment News

 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the jobless numbers for Febuary 2011. This is a regular monthly exercise in statistical flim-flam, and the BLS knows it.

The meaningless unemployment rate in the headlines: 8.9%. The real unemployment rate: 15.9% (includes people who no longer get unemployment benefits, need work but have stopped looking because it’s futile, or have only found part-time work). Learn more here.

 Mike Konczal explains the bottom line: “Unemployment Is Dropping as Workers Keep Dropping Out.”

 

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

(un)Employment News

 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the jobless numbers for December 2010. This is a regular monthly exercise in statistical flim-flam, and the BLS knows it.

The meaningless unemployment rate in the headlines: 9.4%. The real unemployment rate: 16.7% (includes people who no longer get unemployment benefits, need work but have stopped looking because it’s futile, or have only found part-time work). Learn more here.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine