There's something suspicious about the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which claims that the economy added 353,000 jobs in January—more than double what economists had predicted. Is it true? Most likely not, and I'll explain why.

For weeks now, there have been reports of mass layoffs in the tech industry, including at iRobot, Amazon, Google, and Meta, among several others. The news industry has also been plagued by mass layoffs in recent weeks. These layoffs weren't out of the blue, either. Newsweek predicted last month that "mass layoffs are in store for 2024, and it might end up affecting nearly half of companies."

But the Biden administration says everything is fine. Better than fine, actually.

"America’s economy is the strongest in the world," Joe Biden declared in a statement Friday. "Today, we saw more proof, with another month of strong wage gains and employment gains of over 350,000 in January, continuing the strong growth from last year."

But how legit are these numbers? Prior to the release of the report, Zero Hedge listed some (but not all) of the layoffs that were announced in recent months:

• Twitch (35% of workforce)
• Hasbro (20% of workforce)
• Spotify (17% of workforce)
• Levi's (15% of workforce)
• Zerox (15% of workforce)
• Qualtrics (14% of workforce)
• Wayfair (13% of workforce)
• Duolingo (10% of workforce)
• Washington Post (10% of workforce)
• eBay (9% of workforce)
• Business Insider (8% of workforce)
• Paypal (7% of workforce)
• Charles Schwab (6% of workforce)
• UPS (2% of workforce)
• Blackrock (3% of workforce)
• Citigroup (20,000 employees)
• Pixar (1,300 employees).

This is not a sign of a strong, growing economy.

How much can the Biden administration's numbers be trusted? Well, not much. As Zero Hedge noted after the release of the report, "Once again there was a huge dispersion between the Establishment and Household Surveys, and while the former indicated an increase of 353K, the latter reported a drop in Employment of 31K!"

A chart comparing the Establishment and Household Surveys shows that while the reports have generally been quite close, there has been a growing disparity between them since June 2022.



Moreover, in addition to the suspicious figure of 353,000 jobs added in January, Zero Hedge notes that overall employment actually dropped by 31,000, with full-time employment experiencing a decline of 63,000, while part-time positions saw a significant surge, increasing by 96,000.

Clearly none of that mattered to the BLS, however, which had just one mission: to make the Biden economy look double super good-good ahead of the November elections, and it wasn't just payrolls which blew away expectations, the unemployment rate also slipped, staying at 3.7%, vs expectations of an increase to 3.8%. That said, among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.6 percent), adult women (3.2 percent), teenagers (10.6 percent), Whites (3.4 percent), Blacks (5.3 percent), Asians (2.9 percent), and Hispanics (5.0 percent) showed little or no change in January.

Even the alleged wage increase, the report boasted about is deceptive. A closer look reveals that this apparent wage growth is attributed to a decline in actual working hours rather than an authentic increase in wages. The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 0.2 hours to 34.1 hours in January—a 0.5-hour decline over the year, which is the lowest level observed since the thick of the pandemic.

It appears from the report that the BLS has been given the task of making the labor market appear strong and robust ahead of the election in November. Will it work? Did Biden's claiming for years that Bidenomics was working change attitudes about the economy?

Old, There is no such thing as a citizen militia. The militias you write about are nothing more than gangs. According to the Federalist papers, a militia must have a leader appointed by the governor of the state. Now a days, it's called The National Guard. A states National Guard can be federalized by the President of the US, as was the National Guard of Arkansas to desegregate the high schools in Little Rock in the late 50s. By the way the president that nationalized the guard was Ike Eisenhower, a Republican president.

Jim, The courts have outlawed machine guns for sale to civilians. The legal precedent has been made by the courts. The reason for this action is clear. It is just too dangerous to society to have maniacs and felons running around
murdering innocents by the score. The same can be said about AR type assault rifles. They have been the preferred instrument of death for crazies, and felons.
There are exceptions for many of the rights listed in the first amendment. Free speech has limits. A person may not yell fire in a crowded movie, unless there is an actual fire. A person may not use free speech to disrupt an educational environment. Slander is not protected either. If the First Amendment of the US Constitution has exceptions, why not the second amendment?
The federal government is supreme to state governments. This is the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution. In other words, the states may not have laws that go against federal law, so it doesn't really matter what laws Virginia
passes if it goes against federal law.

Well here we go again the new Republican lie that just defies any kind of logic. The new Speaker Mike Johnson is now saying why should republicans create immigration laws when President Biden will not enforce the laws already on the books. Just another excuse for republicans to avoid comprehensive immigration's laws. Biden is waiting.

So let’s get something straight to bring the ignorant MAGA folks up to speed.

So let’s give it a try it’s not the responsibility for the president to enforce border laws. This country has two massive agencies that enforce immigration laws it’s called Customs and Border patrol agencies that protect our borders and ports of entry, Homeland security is the agency that funds the illegals and deport them. Complete and 100% of the oversight to ensure these two agencies are doing there job falls on the House judiciary committee where is controlled by republicans.
It’s not Biden’s responsibility to enforce our federal laws it’s the judiciary committee so all you have done MAGA folks is criticize yourself.
And now you got Trump threatening any house republican thats votes for an immigration legislation is toast.
It really is sad when I have for 8 years now asked these republicans on OPP give me one piece of legislation that any republican has sponsored or co sponsored over the last 40 years. Nothing but crickets. Now we have the speaker with this lame brain excuse why pass new immigration laws if Biden won’t enforce them.
Do you MAGA folks realize how stupid that comment is coming from the speaker of the house who appointed the judiciary committee and they have 100% of the oversight for enforcing southern border laws. That’s not the presidents job it’s congress. 53,000 Border agents 260,000 employees at Homeland security and you’re telling me that Biden is telling these guys on a daily bases stop enforcing immigration laws. (GET A LIFE MAGA)
But keep lying MAGA when this campaign gets into full swing and the American people actually see the hypocrisy of the MAGA folks and Trump in an Orange jump suite and that jump suite will match his hair color but one positive with Trump in jail he will not be allowed a girdle and makeup.