Unemployment Spikes To 9.7 Percent, More Than Expected!

[Neubarth]

Unemployment Spikes To 9.7 Percent, More Than Expected
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/09/unemployment_spikes_to_97_perc.html]
8:33 am ~ September 4, 2009


By Laura Conaway

Unemployment rose to 9.7 percent in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. That's up .3 percent over the July rate of 9.4 percent. Analysts had expected a bump back up to the June level 9.5 percent, so the actual number is solidly grimmer than that.

Last month's small dip was the first decrease in 15 months, and it apparently didn't start a new trend. Employers cut few jobs than expected, with 216,000 lost overall. Unemployment is now at 26-year high. President Obama has said that he expects unemployment to reach 10 percent at some point this year.

The labor force grew by 73,000 people last month, which shows that some of those who'd dropped out of looking went back to the hunt. The July report showed that 422,000 people left the job market for whatever reason, which helped account for the month's slightly lower unemployment rate.

The ranks of the unemployed now include 14.9 million people in the U.S., up by 466,000 since last month. The average monthly job loss for May through July was 331,000, about half the rate of 645,000 from November through April. Since the beginning of the recession, 6.9 million jobs have been lost.

The broadest measure of unemployment -- U6, which includes discouraged workers and those working part-time because all they can get -- hit 16.8 percent. That's up from 16.3 percent in July.

After the jump, a look at the broadest measure of unemployment.

Often called the underemployment rate, U6 combines the count of people who've been laid off and are looking for work with those who have given up or resorted to part-time jobs.

 

[Care4all]

That seems pretty dim. 1 in 10 unemployed, unable to find a job....I think Maine is around 8.5% which is still pretty bad compared to what it was a year ago, 5.4%

Economists do say the Market will recover before jobs recover...or at least this is the theory?

 

[xsited1]

DavidS thought it would go down. Here comes another "F*CK YOU, GUNNY!" thread.

 

[Neubarth]

Even that is a totally bogus number. The DOL uses the Birth/Death ratio to skew it down and then estimates that hundreds of thousands found new mythical jobs that simply do not exist in this Depression. The real number of Unemployed is over Thirty Million. I have been part of a campaign plastering Congress to ask for honesty from the DOL. Looks like the DOL is trying to undo some of their deception, but they are not making a full effort.

Meanwhile in our service sector economy more unemployment means that there are less and less people out there spending money. That will lead to more layoffs and the cycle continues.

 

[DavidS]

It's odd how the jobless increased 500,000 in previous months, but the unemployment rate only increased .1 or .2%, yet the unemployment rate has increased .3% with only 250,000 jobs lost. I don't know how they calculate the percentages.

 

[editec]

Of course unemployment continues to rise.

We have a consumer driven economy and the lions share of the stimulus package is sent to banks.

A serious WPA is needed if we're going to turn this around, but franksly, I doubt American has the money to do it.

(Yet we ALWYS have enough money to fix capitalism as it pertains to the bankers who fucking broke it to begin with)

 

[mascale]

The Mortgage Banking Association, and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, still have websites, on the internet, even now!

History knows how the increase of unemployment rates affects their own business prospects, near-term!

Even the American Association of University Professors puts out that their people average between $49,000.00 per year, to $161,000.00: And they know how they got there!

University of California will ding some of their loaded-end(?) professors ten percent, and ding their associate instructors one percent for the coming year.

These people have a better idea! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/education/04michigan.html

Even CNBC made much of the decrease in education employment, in the payrolls data. Without so-stating, they possibly wanted to point out that the prospects for an economic upturn: Seem to be increasing, every month.

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(Seems that the desperately needed, increase of hourly incomes: Is credited to the increase of Minimum Wage. Purchasing and sales increases, will likely follow, and soon more hourly increases, and so-on. This will happen despite the best efforts of an educated people, shown above!)

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

We lost over 200,000 jobs again.

When the hell is this stimulus going to create a job?

 

[eagleseven]

It's odd how the jobless increased 500,000 in previous months, but the unemployment rate only increased .1 or .2%, yet the unemployment rate has increased .3% with only 250,000 jobs lost. I don't know how they calculate the percentages.

In short, after you are unemployed for a certain length of time (is it 9 months now?), they stop counting you as "unemployed" and call you "out of the workforce." This directly reduces the unemployment rate, but doesn't reflect the true shape of the economy.

Thus, for the past few months, hundreds of thousands of people who lost their jobs last year are being removed from the unemployment numbers, even though they still need jobs. This is why the raw numbers of freshly unemployed do not correlate with changes in unemployment percentages.

This also explains how the unemployment rate when down in July, despite the fact that the country was, in net, still losing jobs. Nothing more than accounting games...

 

[Vast LWC]

As any economist, from the top ones down to the amateurs, can tell you, unemployment is historically, the last item to improve during a recovery.

Right now, housing numbers have improved, the banks are making a profit on the government's investment, production numbers are up, and sales of durable goods have improved. In addition, the stock market is way up from the time Obama was sworn in.

Ben Bernanke and all the other major economists are all in agreement that the recovery has begun and the the economy is on the upswing.

But what do you care about that? The job of the G-No-P is apparently to keep up as much criticism for as long as possible to keep people scared of that "liberal, black president".

You're a pitiful bunch of losers who failed horribly in your job when you were in the majority, and now all you have left is fear and hatred.

 

[eagleseven]

As any economist, from the top ones down to the amateurs, can tell you, unemployment is historically, the last item to improve during a recovery.

Right now, housing numbers have improved, the banks are making a profit on the government's investment, production numbers are up, and sales of durable goods have improved. In addition, the stock market is way up from the time Obama was sworn in.

Ben Bernanke and all the other major economists are all in agreement that the recovery has begun and the the economy is on the upswing.

But what do you care about that? The job of the G-No-P is apparently to keep up as much criticism for as long as possible to keep people scared of that "liberal, black president".

You're a pitiful bunch of losers who failed horribly in your job when you were in the majority, and now all you have left is fear and hatred.

Translation: Don't believe the numbers, they are GOP lies!

 

[Vast LWC]

As any economist, from the top ones down to the amateurs, can tell you, unemployment is historically, the last item to improve during a recovery.

Right now, housing numbers have improved, the banks are making a profit on the government's investment, production numbers are up, and sales of durable goods have improved. In addition, the stock market is way up from the time Obama was sworn in.

Ben Bernanke and all the other major economists are all in agreement that the recovery has begun and the the economy is on the upswing.

But what do you care about that? The job of the G-No-P is apparently to keep up as much criticism for as long as possible to keep people scared of that "liberal, black president".

You're a pitiful bunch of losers who failed horribly in your job when you were in the majority, and now all you have left is fear and hatred.

Translation: Don't believe the numbers, they are GOP lies!

Really?

Well then let me ask you this... How long did it take Reagan to start receovering from Carter's mess?

How long after Carter was out of office did it take before the unemployment numbers started rising again?

And which of those two things happened first?

Do you deny the improvements in all the other numbers I've mentioned?

 

[Vast LWC]

In fact, if anything, Obama's recovery policies are reminiscent of Reagan, including adding to the debt to help boost the economy...

But I don't hear any right-wing nutcases talking about Reagan.

 

[eagleseven]

Greg Mankiw's Blog: How large is the fiscal hole?
Greg Mankiw's Blog: We are all supply-siders now
Greg Mankiw's Blog: Blanchard on the Outlook

Just your local Harvard Economics Professor.

Oh, and Warren Buffet for good measure:

Buffett: Debt Mountain Could Turn America Into A Banana Republic

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

But what do you care about that? The job of the G-No-P is apparently to keep up as much criticism for as long as possible to keep people scared of that "liberal, black president".

You were the last one I would think was going to get all racial, i like your challenging posts but the racist stuff is kinda....meh...bogus.

Dont be suckered into being a racist bro

That being said you are right that the jobs are the last thing to recover.

 

[Vast LWC]

Greg Mankiw's Blog: How large is the fiscal hole?
Greg Mankiw's Blog: We are all supply-siders now
Greg Mankiw's Blog: Blanchard on the Outlook

Just your local Harvard Economics Professor.

Oh, and Warren Buffet for good measure:

Buffett: Debt Mountain Could Turn America Into A Banana Republic

None of those links indicate that Obama's policies made the American recovery slower.

They're not even talking about the recovery, they are talking about projected national debt.

 

[Vast LWC]

But what do you care about that? The job of the G-No-P is apparently to keep up as much criticism for as long as possible to keep people scared of that "liberal, black president".

You were the last one I would think was going to get all racial, i like your challenging posts but the racist stuff is kinda....meh...bogus.

Dont be suckered into being a racist bro

That being said you are right that the jobs are the last thing to recover.

Nah, I'm not playing the racism angle. I mentioned "black" because Glenn Beck is calling him a racist against white people. Should have explained further.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

But what do you care about that? The job of the G-No-P is apparently to keep up as much criticism for as long as possible to keep people scared of that "liberal, black president".

You were the last one I would think was going to get all racial, i like your challenging posts but the racist stuff is kinda....meh...bogus.

Dont be suckered into being a racist bro

That being said you are right that the jobs are the last thing to recover.

Nah, I'm not playing the racism angle. I mentioned "black" because Glenn Beck is calling him a racist against white people. Should have explained further.

I feel better now

 

[Vast LWC]

And, just to prove my point about the Reagan Recovery:

Unemployment figures:

Feb 1981: 7.4%
Feb 1982: 8.6%
Feb 1983: 10.4%
Feb 1984: 8.0%

In other words, it took almost THREE YEARS for Reagan to stop the unemployment rate from rising.

And you people are bitching and moaning after 7 months?

 

[Vast LWC]

And here's my source:

Notice: Data not available: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics.