Jobless Claims and the Employment Picture
Here's a look at today's job-related data:
Initial jobless claims (the number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance the first time) last week were 479,000—the same as the week before, the Labor Department reported. Claims in the comparable period last year were 332,000.
Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, says: "There can be no question that the labor market is deteriorating; the only issue is the speed of the decline and the eventual peak in unemployment."
So, last month, the country lost 159,000—the biggest monthly loss since companies started shedding jobs in January. (You can check out the chart yourself here.) Shepherdson thinks we're headed for a monthly loss of 200,000 jobs. He also thinks we'll see the unemployment rate, now at 6.1 percent, top out at 8.5 percent, which is still considerably lower than the 10.8 percent rate seen in 1983.
Tags: Bureau of Labor Statistics | careers | employment | unemployment | labor
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Numbers not the full picture
Unemployment numbers only include unemployment benefits claims, which account for only a portion of the truly unemployed. To make matters worse, unemployment benefits were cut from 18 months to 6 months during the Bush administration, causing the total number to not include people unemployed for more than 6 months (which many people are). This cut in help to the out-of-work improved overall "unemployment numbers" (to make the administration look better) by effectively reducing the numbers on a technicality. So, there are far more people unemployed that is being reported.
The problem is not just temporary job loss like the recessions of old. The PROBLEM is that jobs lost in manufacturing are coming back (when they come back at all in places like McDonalds, Walmart and too many real estate agents and car salesmen trying to build a dream on commission only.
We need the manufacturing base back, and wind turbines, solar panels, and hydrogen cars are one way to get it back. Another way is being more careful whether trade agreements benefit any PEOPLE on both sides of borders or merely benefit corporations.
We've already goofed that up pretty badly.
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