"Recovery": 7,000 Apply For 200 Target Jobs In Albuquerque

Contradicting the government's (and the MSM's) narrative that the employment situation is improving in this country, Americans continue to apply by the thousands for menial jobs during hiring blitzes at national retail chains and service providers. The latest example of this phenomenon took place this past weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where 7,000 applied for 200 jobs at a Target job fair. From KOAT:

Thousands of people applied for 200 new jobs at Target over the last three days in Northeast Albuquerque.

KOAT Action 7 News went to Target's job fair at the Marriott Uptown every day and continued to find lines snaking around the building.

Candidates only have a one in 35 chance in getting a job, but many have said they're confident they can stand out from the pack...

The list of events similar to this is as long as it is depressing. Here are some highlights:

• In American Airline's hiring blitz of late last year, 20,000 applicants competed against one another for 1,500 flight attendant jobs. More would have applied if the airline didn't stop considering new applicants at the 20K mark.
• Last May, Target accepted more than 2,000 applications for 200 jobs in the first day of a 3 day job fair in Surfside Beach, SC.
• More than 1 million applied for 50,000 openings at McDonald's in its 2011 hiring blitz.

I've noted time and time again on this blog that government unemployment data can't be trusted, primarily because the methodology it employs is fundamentally flawed. Anecdotal evidence such as these mass-application events and mass-layoff events (most recently at American Express), combined with statistical analyses of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, makes a good argument that the unemployment rate is much higher than the government reports.