False Unemployment Rate?

[JT Allen]

I heard the government may be, ahem, "lowballing" the unemployment rate.

[Raven]

Ya Think? All I have to do is talk to people looking for employment, or people I know that has employment the what they are doing in their jobs. The people employed are telling me that the companies are not hiring to replace workers who have left, or are laying off workers and having others do the jobs that they were doing. So for those of us still working hold onto your jobs, and be prepared to multi task more then you are now.

 

I heard the government may be, ahem, "lowballing" the unemployment rate.

[Guest Lee Bellinger]

Unemployment continues to gain momentum, BIG-TIME. If you count unemployment without all the rigged numbers (the way it was calculated in 1980), there are 30 million Americans unemployed - a whopping 20% of the total workforce (Great Depression unemployment topped at 25%).

 

John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics notes that the 20% unemployment figure "approaches Great Depression levels....and we are still only in 1930, not 1932." In recent years, political meddlers who don't want the country to realize what a mess they have created have directed the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to cook its books in several devious ways including, but not limited to, the following:

 

The millions of people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits are no longer counted as "unemployed" in the unemployment statistic the government chooses to emphasize.

Millions of people who have been quietly extended "emergency unemployment benefits" are no longer counted as "unemployed."

Small businesses job-creation projections are "estimated" and thrown in as newly created jobs - even though there is absolutely no sign small businesses are hiring more people (an accounting fiction analysts call the "Birth-Death Model").

The BLS includes people who have part-time jobs (but who actually want full-time jobs) into the core employment numbers, as though these are full-time jobs.

Bottom-line folks: the 9.5% unemployment numbers the Obama Administration is admitting to are utter, total fiction.

 

The job losses seem likely to accelerate. Failed and struggling businesses are now sending the commercial real estate market into a tailspin (perhaps you noticed all the ghost malls springing up like Western tumbleweeds).

 

You need to read the eye-opening briefing below. The government is flat out lying when it says the unemployment rate is a mere 9.5%. It is just not true. The result of the collapsing job market could ultimately be some form of social chaos.

[Guest Stewart A. Alexander]

If there are any hints that the bottom of the U.S. economic decline is near, don't look for any signs in California where the state's unemployment rate is at the highest level since WWII, and thousands are losing their homes to foreclosures as California's economy continues to spiral in decline.

 

The news out of Washington is suggesting that the bottom of the economic decline is here, and last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke stated that the "economy is leveling out;" however, voters are dismissing the Federal Reserve report as propaganda that will only benefit Wall Street.

 

The California jobless rate climbed to 11.9 percent for the month of July with the loss of 35,800 jobs. There are two Southern California counties, Riverside and San Bernardino, where unemployment is at depression levels; the unemployment in both counties is hovering at 14 percent. Other counties in Northern California, Fresno, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare, the unemployment rate has topped 15 percent. According to data collect by the California Employment Development Department, there are 2,187,000 Californians that are presently unemployed or more that 1 out of 10 of the state's labor pool. These numbers are an indication that the Golden State has not reached the bottom and is not "leveling out."

 

There were job losses in every sector, retail, services, manufacturing, construction and finance; and the downturn in the housing industry has hit the construction and finance sectors extremely hard. The decline in construction and finance jobs, due to the collapse of the housing bubble, created the loss of 100s of thousands of jobs throughout California. This has had a trickle down effect creating job losses in retail and service industries.

 

While campaigning for president, President Barack Obama promised that his administration would create "shovel ready jobs" to put millions back to work; however, in California, the only shovel ready jobs that have been created are low paying jobs and part-time employment for kids out of school. Unfortunately, the president's plan has not helped the millions of Californians that are struggling to pay their bills, trying to keep food on their tables and pay their mortgages.

 

Shortly after President Obama took office, Congress approved a $787 billion stimulus bill that has produced little results, and less than 14 percent of the funds have been allocated. This is creating public concern that the President Obama and the Democrats in Congress do not have a plan to rescue the U.S. economy. Without a plan to revive the economy and to put the millions that are unemployed back to work, the president and his party have taken on the daunting task of reforming the nation's healthcare system while the majority of Americans are presently concerned about their financial health and having good paying jobs.

 

As California approaches the 2010 election year, the rhetoric coming from Washington is offering little to confront the stark reality that California is still spiraling in an economic decline, and that decline is mostly due to the poor leadership of both the Democrats and Republicans in California government. Both the Democrats and Republicans, and the leaders representing both parties, have put the interest of the wealthy few before the public's interest, and both parties have done little to protect the interest of working class people.

[Guest Made in China]

Official United States government data revealed on last Friday that the jobless rate in the US rose to 9.7% in August, with the economy having shed 216,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is the highest it has been since June 1983.

 

According to revised government statistics, 276,000 jobs were lost in July and a further 463,000 in June. The figures were higher than earlier estimates of 247,000 and 443,000.

 

The economy has lost 6.9 million jobs since the recession officially began in December 2007. The total number of unemployed in the country is now at 14.9 million.

 

Nigel Gault, the chief economist at IHS Global Insight, said that the news was not as bad as it seemed, saying that "the decline last month was too good to be true, really. It's too early for the unemployment rate to be coming down, of course we're still losing jobs."

 

"What I would take encouragement from is the fact is the trend in the rate of decline in jobs is still improving, that private sector jobs were down 198,000, that's 50,000 better than the previous month and it's almost 200,000 better than the month before that," he said.

[Guest R. Curtin]

What was the defining characteristics of the Great Depression?

 

It was persistently high levels of unemployment. The national unemployment rate averaged 17.9% from 1930 to 1940, nearly four times its average of 4.6% from 1900 to 1929. The unemployment rate surged to 24.9% in 1933 from just 3.2% in 1929, and remained at double digit levels until 1940. Wartime mobilization finally pushed the unemployment rate from 14.6% in 1940 to a low of 1.2% in 1944.

[Guest James Arft]

The United States continues to be in economic decline. It started with Nixon, accelerated with Carter and has reached crisis proportions under President Obama. Examples of decline and stagnation are widespread. For instance, reduced personal and household incomes have been dropping for ten years. For instance, official national unemployment rate is at recession levels. The latest number of new filings for unemployment is again on the upswing. To make matters worse, the official rate understates the actual number of people unemployed. The real rate is likely 1 to 2 times greater than the official rate.

[Guest Enron Ex]

The mayor of Detroit estimates that the real unemployment rate in his city is now somewhere around 50 percent.

 

http://thisistheendoftheworldasweknowit.com/archives/ground-zero-for-the-american-nightmare-unemployment-is-now-at-45-percent-in-detroit

[knoble]

I absolutely believe the unemployment rate is much higher than we are led to believe. I read an article on CNN Money that states 80% of available jobs are not posted, and that companies are relying, more than ever, on their current employees to bring qualified people to the table. It's always been a practice that companies use to hire, but it's much worse now due to the influx of resumes they receive when they post a position. Who has time to sort through 2,000 resumes for one job?

 

With that said, I'm sure that statistic lends to the high unemployment rate. Take my case for example - I have been job searching since March of last year, applying for jobs that I'm overly, under and evenly qualfied for with absolutely no luck. I blame that on the fact that I'm new to the area and do not know anyone.

[Guest American for Progress]

Knoble,

Do you have a resume? What type of job are you looking for?

[knoble]

Knoble,

Do you have a resume? What type of job are you looking for?

 

 

American for Progress,

 

Yes, I have a resume. I'd love to email over a copy to you if you want to take a look.

 

My last position was as Executive Director of a nonprofit, but I have a background in data analysis and communications as well. I'm casting a wide net right now, due to the current circumstances, but ideally an administrative, project coordinator/management, or analysis position. I'm wide open for suggestions, however.

[Guest DC Resident]

I know of a Project Coordinator position.

 

University of the District of Columbia

DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH

DIVISION OF HUMAN RESOURCES

64 NEW YORK AVENUE, NE, 5th Floor

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20002

ATTN: Cynthia Hawkins (202) 673-3517

FACSIMILE: (202) 673-4386

[Guest August]

World Wildlife Fund is looking as well. (202) 293-4800. Good Luck!

[Guest Mister X]

It is sad to think that that pay for production and non-supervisory workers (80% of the private workforce) is 9% lower than it was in 1973, adjusted for inflation. And it is only going to get worse.

[Guest Grace]

Corporations want to hire younger, less experienced grads who must now accept lower salaries and fewer, if any, health and dental benefits. It's a sad situation for those entering the work force and for those who've been discarded.

[Guest Alternet]

The government unemployment rate is deceptive on several levels. It doesn't count people who are "involuntary part-time workers," meaning workers who are working part-time but want to find full-time work. It also doesn't count "discouraged workers," meaning long-term unemployed people who have lost hope and don't consistently look for work. As time goes by, more and more people stop consistently looking for work and are discounted from the unemployment figure. For instance, in January, 1.1 million workers were eliminated from the unemployment total because they were "officially" labeled discouraged workers. So instead of the number rising, we will hear deceptive reports about unemployment leveling off.

 

On top of this, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently discovered that 824,000 job losses were never accounted for due to a "modeling error" in their data. Even in their initial January data there appears to be a huge understating, with the newest report saying the economy lost 20,000 jobs. TrimTabs employment analysis, which has consistently provided more accurate data, "estimated that the U.S. economy shed 104,000 jobs in January."

 

When you factor in all these uncounted workers -- "involuntary part-time" and "discouraged workers" -- the unemployment rate rises from 9.7 percent to over 20 percent. In total, we now have over 30 million U.S. citizens who are unemployed or underemployed. The rarely cited "employment-participation" rate, which reveals the percentage of the population that is currently in the workforce, has now fallen to 64 percent.

 

Even based on the "official" unemployment rate, just to get back to the unemployment level of 4.6 percent that we had in 2007, we need to create over 10 million new jobs, and most every serious economist will tell you that these jobs are not coming back. In fact, we are still consistently shedding jobs, on just one day, January 27, several companies announced new cuts of more than 60,000 jobs.

 

Due to the length of this crisis already, millions of Americans are reaching a point where the unemployment benefits they have been living on are coming to an end. More workers have already been out of work longer than at any point since statistics have been recorded, with over six million now unemployed for over six months. A record 20 million Americans qualified for unemployment insurance benefits last year, causing 27 states to run out of funds, with seven more also expected to go into the red within the next few months. In total, 40 state programs are expected to go broke.

 

Most economists believe the unemployment rate will remain high for the foreseeable future. What will happen when we have millions of laid-off workers without any unemployment benefits to save them?

[Guest Desert Rat]

Actual unemployme­nt in America equates to 44 1/4 million Americans out of work. TechnoMetr­ica Market Intelligen­ce (TMI), a company that monitors unemployme­nt data, believes that the true unemployed -- and underemplo­yed -- rate is far higher than the government reports-- over three times higher. According to data gathered by TMI, the actual rate of unemployme­nt in the United States stands at 28.6 percent or around 44,250,000 Americans.

 

That is double the entire population of Australia or equal to the total population of Spain or 72% of the population of the United Kingdom.

 

http://www.njfac.org/

[Guest TheBigPictureRT]

Thom Hartmann talks about taking back our politics and restoring protectionism in America.