Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 11, 2009

The White House has claimed that unemployment has improved, that the economy is strengthening. The first question that pops to mind: Where?

Times are tough financially for Americans from coast to coast… unless you work for the federal government. Under Obama, only those who work for the feds are out of the cold this Christmas.

From Gateway Pundit, Fed Workers Enjoy Boom Time– Average Pay Now at $71K Compared to $40K in Private Sector:

Just because its the “greatest recession since the Great Depression” does not mean that everyone is hurting.

Government workers are enjoying a boom time since the democrats took over Congress. The average pay of a federal worker jumped to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.

From USA Today, For feds, more get 6-figure salaries:

Average pay $30,000 over private sector
By Dennis Cauchon
December 11, 2009

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.

“There’s no way to justify this to the American people. It’s ridiculous,” says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House’s federal workforce subcommittee.

Jessica Klement, government affairs director for the Federal Managers Association, says the federal workforce is highly paid because the government employs skilled people such as scientists, physicians and lawyers. She says federal employees make 26% less than private workers for comparable jobs.

USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management’s database that tracks salaries of more than 2 million federal workers. Excluded from OPM’s data: the White House, Congress, the Postal Service, intelligence agencies and uniformed military personnel.

The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker’s pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.

From CNN Money: Unemployment claims jump unexpectedly:

Initial filings for jobless benefits climb by 17,000 to 474,000, higher than forecast.
By Hibah Yousuf, CNN Money staff reporter
December 10, 2009

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance jumped last week, the government said Thursday, with a figure that was above analysts’ expectations.

There were 474,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Dec. 5, up 17,000 from the previous week’s unrevised 457,000, the lowest level since September 2008, the Labor Department said in its weekly report.

A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 455,000 new claims.

From Fresno Bee: California agency delays 119,000 unemployment checks:

By Andrew McIntosh
December 11, 2009

Jobless Californians are facing eviction and homelessness because the Employment Development Department has been unable to deliver an estimated 119,000 checks for extended unemployment insurance benefits after the federal government approved extra money last month.

Legislators are getting calls from anxious and desperate constituents, while media reports about the growing problems faced by the long-term unemployed are emerging statewide.

Until early November, a mix of state benefits and two prior extensions of federal benefits gave jobless California residents up to 79 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits.

The Obama administration approved a third federal benefit extension on Nov. 8. The move added up to another 14 weeks of benefits for residents of states with unemployment rates of 6.5 percent or higher. California’s jobless rate is 12.5 percent.

More than 93,500 people statewide exhausted all available benefits between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1 and haven’t received a check since then.

National Review Online: Hey, Could We Ask a Governor or Mayor in a Low-Unemployment Area?:

On Chris Matthews right now, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm and Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter are singing the praises of Obama’s speech on creating jobs today.

Michigan’s unemployment rate is 15.1 percent; Philadelphia’s unemployment rate is 11 percent. You would have to look pretty hard to find two local officials who have presided over steeper or more dramatic losses of jobs; I’m not sure that praise from either of them should be all that reassuring.

UPDATE, DECEMBER 21, 2009: And from across the pond, this report on Queen Elizabeth from SamHenry is just plain sad, but will become even more evident as we progress/regress into a world-wide socialist climate: Queen Elizabeth – Christmas on the Cheap at Aged 80. I’d like to think Her Majesty is just being frugal, but we all know that it’s more than that.

Additional reading:
Political Lipskip: Federal Pay Outrage
TimesNews.net: Number of federal workers getting 6-figure salaries explodes during recession; trend boosts average federal worker salary to $71,206
Gateway Pundit: Obama Drops 48 Points In Approval Index in 1 Year… A Good Solid B+ and Obama Tells GOP to Stop Scare Tactics As Dems Agree to Blow Billions More on Another Failed Jobs Creation Plan and Obama Unemployment Rate Remains in Double Digits — 10.0% and Dem’s NEW Jobs Plan will Only Cost America $300 Billion and House Republicans Ask Team Obama to Quit Repeating ‘Saved or Created’ Nonsense
Frank DeMartini, Big Hollywood: SAG Undercuts Employment Opportunities For Actors
GayPatriot: If Obama is really concerned about cutting the deficit, he should take lessons from a certain former Governor and Hey, Ma’am, what about the jobs in California?
MotorCityTimes: Obama ‘Plans To Spend’ Our Way Out Of Recession
RedState: Obama’s Assault on Economic Freedom
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood: Daily Gut: The Real Santa
VotingFemale Speaks!: Breaking: Obama announces proposals aimed at saving a job, His and 76% Prefer Free Market Economy, DHS Watch List Must be HUGE! lol and CBC Threatens ‘Actions’ against Obama over unemployments; Pelosi claims Socialism’s failures are Bush’s Fault! hahaha and Between 100,000 and 200,000 doctors officially reject ObamaCare and Number of Democrats Falls to Four-Year Low, so says Rasmussen Poll; butt kicking of Socialism mounts
The New Ledger, Big Government: Unpacking the Job Numbers, Roadblocks for Bernanke, and the Future of Mainstream Media
Ace of Spades HQ: Polls: Pollster.com’s Aggregated Average Puts Obama Underwater: Carville’s Democracy Corps Says Conservatives Make Big Gains
Hot Air: Examiner analysis: More than 10% of stimulus jobs are phony and Porkulus job numbers “wildly exaggerated”: Boston Globe?
Mike Flynn, Big Government: Obama Stimulus Numbers: The Return of Enron-Style Accounting
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Big Government: Mr. President, Where Are the Jobs?
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Eye-Rolling Time… Obama Now Claims He “Created or Saved One Million Jobs” (video) and Illegal Immigration from Mexico Slowing, Has Dramatically Dropped Because of America’s Plunging Economy and Please Send in Clowns to Replace Obama Morons: Pay Increases Were Counted as Recovery Program’s “Jobs Saved”

The New Ledger, Big Government: Economy in the Lurch: Negative Interest Rates, the Fed Audit, and Geithner in the Dock and Do the Democrats Have Any Solutions on Jobs? Anything at All?
Steven Green, Big Government: The Political Landscape: The Slobs Versus the Snobs
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Obama – we must spend our way out of this recession
Ace of Spades HQ: Reid: I’m So Totally Stoked My Health Care Reform Bill Will “Save” $127 Billion Over Ten Years, Which Is Less than October’s One Month Deficit
Outside the Beltway: Congress to Investigate Fake Districts
Jumping in Pools: Obama Approval Under 50% According to Quinnipiac, Fox News, Rasmussen, and Gallup Polls
Michelle Malkin: The Stimulus Jobs Inflation Map and The Stimulus Jobs Inflation Index
Tai-Chi Policy: Just How Bad Is The Democrat’s Spending?
Doug O’Brien, Big Government: More Stimulus Math: Cooking the Books on Stimulus Jobs
The Powers That Be: Unemployment Stimulated Again
The American Pundit: Pork-Loving Senators Diverted Billions in Funds from Troops
The Lonely Conservative: $2.6 Billion Cut From Defense to Fund Pork
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Stimulus Creating “Full-Time Job Equivalents”

Categories: Business & Economy, Government, Social and Political Climate
Tags: America, Christmas, economic recession, economic stimulus, financial crisis, financial hardship, jobless, POTUS, Pres. Obama, unemployment, White House