While the Democrats were hooting and hollering and spewing lies and hate both inside and outside the United Center in Chicago at their quadrennial clown show, the more sober U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics finally admitted, "Whoops -- we made a major mistake! A 30% mistake in counting. There were actually 818,000 fewer jobs created in the past year than what we reported."
Each year, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey employment estimates are benchmarked to comprehensive counts of employment for the month of March. These counts are derived from state unemployment insurance (UI) tax records that nearly all employers are required to file. For National CES employment series, the annual benchmark revisions over the last 10 years have averaged plus or minus one-tenth of one percent of total nonfarm employment. The preliminary estimate of the benchmark revision indicates an adjustment to March 2024 total nonfarm employment of -818,000 (-0.5 percent).
Oh! Well, mistakes do happen and what's 818,000 fewer jobs among friends?
Well, since you asked, an increase in bankruptcies in 2023.
Total bankruptcy filings rose 16.8 percent, with significant increases in both business and non-business bankruptcies, in the twelve-month period ending Dec. 31, 2023. This accelerates a continuing rebound in filings after more than a decade of sharply dropping totals.
According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, annual bankruptcy filings totaled 452,990 in the year ending December 2023, compared with 387,721 cases in the previous year.
Business filings rose 40.4 percent, from 13,481 to 18,926, in the year ending Dec. 31, 2023. Non-business bankruptcy filings rose 16 percent to 434,064, compared with 374,240 in December 2022.
And this bankruptcy downward spiral has continued with even more force -- at least 16% as of April, 2024 -- into 2024:
Bankruptcies Rise 16 Percent Over Previous Year
Bankruptcy filings rose 16 percent during the 12-month period ending March 31, 2024. That is a similar rate of acceleration as in the Dec. 31, 2023, quarterly report...
According to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, total filings rose to 467,774 new cases, compared with 403,273 cases reported during the year ending March 31, 2023.
Business filings increased 40.4 percent, from 14,467 in March 2023 to 20,316 in the newest report. Non-business filings rose 15.1 percent, from 388,806 in March 2023 to 447,458 in March 2024.
Oh again. But forget about all those unemployed laborers, white-collar workers, newly graduated young people, illegal aliens, and other unseen, unacknowledged dupes. Things will get better. You'll see -- because on Friday Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is scheduled to speak at the Federal Reserve's annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where he will probably inform the working vacationing attendees that good times are just around the corner because interest rates will go down and easier monetary policy is on the horizon.
Or as that favorite Democratic theme song that began just prior to the Depression and World War ll explains "happy days are here again."
Image: Library of Congress