Sunday, February 28, 2010
Jobless Rate: The Real Truth
Can you trust national averages? As bad as the jobless data you hear are, you have not been told the whole truth. If you think the terrible impact of America’s Great Recession is shown by an official unemployment rate of about 10 percent, think again.
Economic inequality and the myth of Reagan trickle down logic are shown by new data from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. The report noted: “What has been missing from the public debate over the labor market crisis is an honest and detailed analysis of which American workers have been most adversely affected by the deep deterioration in labor markets.” The researchers found a correlation between household income and unemployment rate in the last quarter of 2009: Look carefully at these numbers and see how unemployment rises as income drops:
$150,000 or more, 3.2 percent
$100,000 to 149,999, 8 percent
$75,000 to $99,999, 5 percent
$60,000 to $75,000, 6.4 percent
$50,000 to $59,000, 7.8 percent
$40,000 to $49,000, 9 percent
$30,000 to $39,999, 12.2 percent
$20,000 to $29,999, 19.7 percent
$12,500 to $20,000, 19.1 percent
$12,499 or less, 30.8 percent
Ten times worse unemployment in the lowest class than in the highest class! Truly amazing and disheartening, don’t you think? And you can also infer that in some hard hit geographical areas the poorest people and people of color are being even more adversely impacted. And don’t think for a minute that things have really improved in 2010.
More Here
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thankfully, I'm in that top group. I can probably keep the job through the rest of this year, at a minimum--that's how I approach it, along with my preparation.
ReplyDeleteThe lower income families are suffering most. It is the upper incomes that the Federal bailouts are designed to protect. The creation of more federal jobs will still not put the uneducated poor of this country to work. You do not take a poor woman who is a 7th grade drop out in charge of the Clinton Library. I am thinking someone with a degree in Library sciences would be more appropriate. Thus, the poor and uneducated remain stuck looking for employment at Walmart and Mcdonalds. I believe the roving bands of inner city teens and young adults are just around the corner. Kansas City is closing 30 schools and moving the students in together in remaining schools. This comes from a school system who has been unaccredited for years. Even in the midwest where things look good is falling apart.
ReplyDeleteTrickle down economics.
ReplyDeleteAHehAHehAhehahaha.
The evil laughter of the elitist bastards!
Urinating upon the serfs!
AhehaHAHehAhehaheha!!
yes, and in the 40k bracket one can think of professions in the likes of teachers who may have a lower income than other people with the same level of education which earn more than them at the price of less job security
ReplyDeleteThis is misleading. The majority of the population earns $30,000-$40,000. Of course they would loose the most jobs relatively speaking. Not to mention there work is easily replaced. This reflects more the other charts about income disparities and that 1% riches share in general.
ReplyDeleteThey will be laying of around 300? teachers in KC.
ReplyDeleteKC? Kansas City or Kentucky Chicken?
ReplyDeleteHow dare you attack the greatest American President along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; the great Ronald Reagan? Reagan helped America become stronger militarily and the economy also boomed. America is better off because of Ronald Reagan.
ReplyDeleteWe used to be in the third from the lowest, so (1980's) we moved out of state (Fla. really sucks for jobs), Sometimes you have to move; other family members (out west) moved to AZ from Oregon; same for friends in the S.E. If you have a trade, you can find work. Now with the internet, it's easier to relocate and find work.
ReplyDeleteWHat ronald reagan did:
ReplyDeleteRonald reagan:
1. Threatened Deployment of the pershing cruise missiles in europe that had been signed into creation at massive taxpayer expense by 'peanut farmer' Jimmy Carter.
2. Declared a new world order to the people (as per his Handler Senior), declared 'trickle down economics' to the people, much to the laughter of the elite.
3. Got shot by Senior for talking too much about 'ET's
4. Stayed nice and quiet till his departure so Senior could fully take over.
4:03 I like talking about ET's. UFO's are one of my favorite pass times. Regan and Jimmy C. should have just kept talking.
ReplyDeleteHow about a list of real job prospects or growth areas? I have too many of those private trade schools "graduating" Medical Assistants and Security Agents. Yea, train to be an agent for the TSA or the Justice Department, in reality you'll be $10K in the hole, earning 8 bucks an hour, guarding a construction site from 11PM - 7AM. What a glorious profession.
ReplyDeleteronald regan were do we start
ReplyDeletecocaine for guns oliver north
the right to work act that destroyed the unions
made it possible a few years later for illegals to work on goverment jobs
also he gave us our beloved bush family
we cant get rid of the whole family
oh thats right hinckleys father was having dinner with the bushes the day of the attempt
there is so much corruption i dont think america can survive
but lets face it we already have a dictator
only a fool would think america is still free
just dont question it and you are
Hey 5:15, Clinton was having a ball with Bush Junior back then when Daddy was president.
ReplyDeleteThere's also that little thing about what happened down in Jaurez mexico round about that time, but you know, being the presidents son and all, can't question a man about things like that.
Love how The Onion served to cover that whole little incident up.
C130 cargo planes.
Mmmmhmmmmm.
It's funny too because I remember back in 1980 seeing 'Bush deals crack' graffiti in my neighborhood and wondering what it meant.
This data is grossly misleading. The people at the $50K and below incomes are the vast majority of the labor force and the numbers were taken from a the 4th quarter of 2009-just a snapshot -not a long term series. Slamming Reaganomics based on this data is mindless. Did the researchers look back over 20 years to identify how many who were at mid- and lower income levels are now in the upper percentiles? I was at the bottom income rung of that report's charts the year Reagan took over. I worked hard and am at the upper end of that study's bracket today. It took 20 years of bad monetary, fiscal and tax policy to reverse the Reagan revolution and bring us to the horrible state of affairs today. The next few years of deficit spending, borrowing and taxing by this Congress and President with sustained unemployment and negligible economic growth will probably be the last straw as you can see already from the Tea Party movement, election of Scott Brown and retirement of incumbent Dems, etc. The days of both the welfare state and welfare capitalism are numbered if for no other reason than we can't afford either anymore. When that change begins to happen there will be an explosion of entrepreneurial energy and investment in American industries and the jobs that go along with it.
ReplyDeleteJoking about unemployment or unemployed people isn't my thing. I feel a lot of sympathy for them. Lots of sincere people out there ready and willing to work for just about any wage.
ReplyDelete10:12 "I am in the upper income bracket."
ReplyDeleteNice. Brag much?
I think 10:12pm is right that there will be an 'explosion' of American entrepreneurial energy and investment in American Industries' directed towards CIVIL WAR TWO.
ReplyDeleteThese young people today are done with the old paradigms.
They want change alright and they all seem hell bent on the Samson Option.
Good luck yall.
10:12am I would be careful praising this "grassroots" Tea Party movement. Anything this "grassroots" would not be getting the corporate media attention it has been getting. It's taken on something that favours a contrived political movement by the Oligarch because they are well aware that their two party fraud and their utter failings and corruption that lead to this econmic collapse. Is going to have the sheeple want another choice. Why not manufacture one and still have control but still give the illusion of choice and freedom. It is right out of there handout. Don't be fooled. As the say the revolution will not be televised.
ReplyDelete@2:42am Civil War 2 is what it will take to clean out the parasites, large and small.
ReplyDeleteSome think they are clever and that is all about individualist personal not social survival , hoping to ride on the coatails
ReplyDeletethe superrich hoarders of gold and to come out top of the pile when the “sheeple” go down . As if all we need to do is buy gold.
I for one am for confiscating all gold from the hoarders big or small who hope to take individualist advantage at the expense of the "sheeple" by buying up the worlds physical assets at a cheap price in the downturn.
Why should we let that happen?
Confiscate Gold !
So the same rich gangsters that bought on this mess do not come out on top again