Don't Let Anyone Tell You the Economy is in Recovery

Cal Thomas | Syndicated Columnist | Updated: Oct 19, 2012

Don't Let Anyone Tell You the Economy is in Recovery

Don't let anyone tell you the economy is in recovery. Listen to this.

After last month's cheering about a supposed drop in unemployment to 7.8 percent, which I thought was phony and timed for the election, now comes new data that reveal weekly unemployment benefits jumped last week to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the highest in four months.

I predict the jobless figure will jump above 8 percent again when the October numbers are released just a couple days before the election. But whatever the number, it won't reflect real unemployment when one considers the number of people who have stopped looking for work, retired early because they couldn't find a job, and those people in their 20s who are living at home because they either can't get a job or the job they do have pays them too little to live on their own.

Add to all this the uncertainty about those tax cuts coming back and national health care and you have a rotten economy. Let's see what difference that makes in the coming election.

In Augusta, Ga., I'm Cal Thomas.

Publication date: October 19, 2012

Don't Let Anyone Tell You the Economy is in Recovery