Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, marked the beginning of the Great Depression, but for Barack Obama, last Friday was Black Friday because the U.S. Department of Labor announced that only 69,000 jobs were added in May, well below expectations that it might reach 150,000. The official unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2 percent, but it is actually far closer to 15 percent.
The news means that Obama’s hope of being reelected ranges between slim to none. Beyond the current numbers, on Friday CNS News reported that 766,000 more women are unemployed than when he took office in 2009.
Also on Friday, Generation Opportunity, a non-profit, non-partisan organization devoted to younger Americans reported that unemployment among young adults, ages 18 to 29, was 12.1 percent in May. “The declining labor participation has created an additional 1.7 million young adults that are not counted as ‘unemployed’ by the Bureau of Labor Statistics because they are not in the labor force, having given up looking for work.” If their numbers were factored in, “the actual 18-29 unemployment rate would rise to 16.9 percent.”