Jobs report: More people went on disability than got jobs in June

Here’s a fun tidbit that I missed from the June jobs report.  Most months, the number of people transferring out of the workforce on disability claims are easily dwarfed by the people who find jobs.  In June?  Hope and change, baby:

More workers joined the federal government’s disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation’s jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.

The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration.

As Investors Business Daily further notes, that isn’t the exception in the Obama recovery, but the rule:

The disability ranks have outpaced job growth throughout President Obama’s economic recovery. While the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, fully 3.1 million workers signed up for disability benefits.

I discussed this with economist John Lott, co-author of the book Debacle: Obama’s War on Jobs and Growth, and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future, along with Grover Norquist.  Lott explains that as people run out of jobless benefits after the two-year cycle, they look to transfer to a more permanent subsidy.  These people have given up hope of finding any kind of work in the future, and probably for good reason; two years without a job makes skill sets erode, and creates anxiety among employers who are definitely in a buyer’s market in terms of labor needs.  John explains further why this report is most certainly not a “step in the right direction,” and explains why American unemployment is now actually worse than in Europe:

John Lott on the new jobs numbers by cptned

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