Sunday, December 6, 2009
Unemployment Reality
The U.S. unemployment numbers are out, and most headlines will show that the U.S. unemployment rate in November was 10.0 percent, down from 10.2 percent in October. That number is depressingly large, but even that under-counts the true number of unemployed. For instance, it doesn’t count those people who don’t have a job and have given up looking for one, or those who have found marginal part-time work but still can’t make ends meet and are still looking for a full-time job.
The government keeps stats on all of these “marginally attached workers” and people “employed part time for economic reasons” (rather than by choice). If you add all of those people in, the total unemployment rate in the U.S. is 17.2 percent, compared to 12.6 percent a year ago. The only good news is that number is down from 17.5 percent in October.
To explain all of this (and I guess to remind people why it’s important to budget in these trying times), the folks at Mint prepared the video. Despite its attempt to be lighthearted, it’s probably the most depressing cartoon you’ll see all month.
LINK HERE
Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds
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SKWRAL
ReplyDelete9.54, you are the smartest citizen i've had for a very long time because i print free money too while the serfs slave for eternity.
ReplyDeleteThe real reason for the marginal drop in unemployment is obvious: Christmas is coming!
ReplyDeleteThe unemployed at least want to try to get a little money to have a less than depressing Christmas so a few picked up part-time jobs and the holiday shopping season helped bring the number up. I won't be suprised to see more quit or be laid off after the holidays.
Yes, thats a good point. Also some businesses that hinge largely on christmas sales may be be force to close their doors sometime after the holidays, which will help bring that number back down.
ReplyDeleteGo to hand it to the bankster MSM. They know how to bang the drum over and fake positive economic news.
ReplyDeleteThe level of evil in our world knows no bounds. What the elite are doing with HAARP rivals the first nukes. Our future is going to be not so great.
ReplyDeleteThat video rules!!!!!!! How true.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how other areas are hoding up, but, I live in Wichita KS and the unemployment rate is actually pretty good compared to other states. However, we always are the last to pop and last to recover. There are a lot more commercial real estate for sale, lease, etc. around. It seems stores and restaurants may be a little slower. Though when it does pop, I think it's going to get worse; a lot worse.
ReplyDeleteMy company may break even this year or lose a little and I am actually happy about that, it could be worse, and it will get worse.
ReplyDeleteSelf-employed are not included either. My business (dairy) is not earning what it should due to low payouts to farmers--so no extras. No hires, new equipment, and only essential repairs--many small businesses are in the same boat. This will ripple through for a long time to come.
ReplyDeleteHere's the real story -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.annaly.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/duration-of-unemployment-g3-124091.jpg
I agree with Bob. There are more part-time and temporary jobs around Christmas coupled with people who have fallen off of government statistics. Given this, it is conceivable that if we saw a further reduction in unemployment at the end of January 2010 (let's say 9.9 or even 9.8%), most people would be led to believe that the economy is improving when it obviously is not.
ReplyDeleteTerrenceb Deagle
Unemployment, both in the U.S. and the world as a whole, marches ever higher because the field of economics doesn't account for the relationship between population density and per capita consumption.
ReplyDeleteFollowing the beating the field of economics took over the seeming failure of Malthus' theory, economists adamantly refuse to ever again consider the effects of population growth. If they did, they might come to understand that once an optimum population density is breached, further over-crowding begins to erode per capita consumption and, consequently, per capita employment.
And these effects of an excessive population density are actually imported when a nation like the U.S. attempts to trade freely with other nations much more densely populated - nations like China, Japan, Germany, Korea and a host of others. The result is an automatic trade deficit and loss of jobs - tantamount to economic suicide.
Using 2006 data, an in-depth analysis reveals that, of our top twenty per capita trade deficits in manufactured goods (the trade deficit divided by the population of the country in question), eighteen are with nations much more densely populated than our own. Even more revealing, if the nations of the world are divided equally around the median population density, the U.S. had a trade surplus in manufactured goods of $17 billion with the half of nations below the median population density. With the half above the median, we had a $480 billion deficit!
If you‘re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, then I invite you to visit either of my web sites at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com or PeteMurphy.wordpress.com where you can read the preface, join in the blog discussion and, of course, buy the book if you like. (It's also available at Amazon.com.)
Pete Murphy
Author, "Five Short Blasts"