Is The Glass Half Full - Or Half Empty? More People Drop From Unemployment Rolls. Why?
By Susie Madrak Thursday Jun 18, 2009 3:00pm
Sometimes I wonder if reporters have any damned sense at all. The reason the unemployment rolls have dropped is simple - people (like me!) have tapped out their benefits:
June 18 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans receiving claims for unemployment benefits dropped for the first time since January, adding to evidence the job market is starting to thaw.
The number of people collecting unemployment insurance plunged by 148,000 in the week to June 6, the most since November 2001, to 6.69 million, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Initial claims rose by 3,000 to 608,000 in the week ended June 13, in line with forecasts.
The average number of claims over the last four weeks fell to the lowest level in four months, an indication that the U.S. economy is stabilizing after the worst recession in half a century. Even so, companies are likely to be slow to hire new employees, sending unemployment rates higher, analysts said.
“The labor market remains weak but it’s starting to stabilize,” said Maxwell Clarke, chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal in New York. “An improvement in employment conditions and improvement in confidence go hand in hand with an improvement in consumer spending.”
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Either the banksters got all the ransom money they wanted, and now they are letting us breathe again.
Or, some people have been on unemployment long enough for their benefits to run out. Remember than in the American system, only people cashing in unemployment count as "unemployed." Those out of benefits are not counted, even though they are not working...
people a How to Swim book while treading water without a life preserver.
Mine ran out in April , living on savings now.
Here's someone's blog post which quantitatively addresses the "benefit exhaustion" rate: http://fridayinvegas.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-on-exhaustion-rate.html.
I have been collecting since april of last year. Then I got a job in march of this year with a company that was going down fast. They fired me after a month because they couldnt afford to pay me but they made up some phoney diciplinary reasons. Since april 20th I have been claiuming my weeks every two week like I am supposed to do but my claim is stuck in the "Adjudent Review Board" here in the state of Florida trying to figure out why I was fired. No one has contacted me for my side of the story so far and the company that I worked for is just about to go under. I found out yesterday that there is NO WAY to contact the Adjudent Review Board so I am in limbo with no income since 4/20/09. Bills are due and they are going to repo my vehicle any day now.
during the Bush administration how "optimistic" unemployment numbers would come out and surprise everyone. Then, 6 weeks later they would be "revised" and, guess what? The numbers weren't so good afterall.
I see no reason why that wouldn't happen here. Everything is still totally out of control.
I heard this news on NPR at noon today and wondered why they didn't report that simple fact too.
Soon we'll all be fighting over those minimum wage jobs.
I see how they are saying the Dollar is gaining ground and rallying, every day for the last 3 weeks I see the same reports.
Interesting thing is that it keeps losing ground against the Pound and the Euro, a full 10 cents lost every week for the last 4 weeks now.
I no longer believe anything the media tells me, no matter what the source, unless I can verify it myself. And I always verify it these days.
U6 unemployment (the only one that comes close) is at 16.4% in May.
Bet it's up around 17% now. That means it's really closer to 20% to 25%.
When these type of statistics come out I sure would like to see them compare the new sign-ups for welfare. This would give you a truer feel as to why the un-employment rolls dropped.
Let alone a depression.
I have lived through a shitload of these, and every single time, the media lie like Ananias. I stopped believing their horseshit in the mid-1970s.
Since they've started laying off folks at my office. No notice, we get an email and BAM, people start getting led to chopping block. They reduced our staff by 20% with more cuts planned for next quarter.../sigh
The book is called "How to Lie with Statistics". Politicians think they are good at it, but they aren't. The drop is only because people are being pushed off the rolls whether they have a job or not. Notice the language "the number of people RECEIVING claims". Big difference between needing something and receiving it.
counting the millions of Americans who have given up looking for work or who are underemployed; last time I checked, about four months ago, real unemployment was about 12.7%. It's gotta be that much worse now.
I thought the same thing when I saw the headline earlier - didn't even click into because it seemed like something for the "Department of Duh." Seriously, is there *any* segment of the economy that's hiring right now, especially in the numbers it would take to account for the stats?
With the "media" we've been saddled with we're doomed. Doomed, I tell ya!
--Gordon Gekko proclaimed love was something people invented to "keep them from jumping out of buildings." While Gekko was indeed "twisted," It would appear the Labor Department has taken up his philosophy of invention.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/18/jim-...
The people who want "Obama to go away" are the health care and insurance company obby.
You are now no longer counted as unemployed.
You can never go wrong by underestimating the intelligence of any of the MSM reporters.
They just do what they're ordered to do.
Because if they don't, they join the breadlines themselves, and they know it.
Went with my neighbor to an office where someone helped him with paperwork for extended unemployment benefits. While I waited I looked at the local newspaper. There were 9 help wanted ads and 3 pages of foreclosure legal notices.
and its the bush depression
and we arent gonna make any sort of comeback until and unless all outsourced jobs return home, and all insourced jobs return to americans
call me a xenophobe if you want....but i would rather be a xenophobe than homeless
I'm seeing people getting jobs. My brother in law had to move out to Denver to do it, but, hey....he's working now. Other people I know are going back to work. Let's just keep an eye on it.
That is great news!!! Anybody else seeing this?
The real unemployment numbers have always been skewed.. I remember the Bushies reclassifying burger flippers as " manufacturers " to prop up the numbers and remind us that outsourcing was good. Are they counting the people driven into early retirement because they might be too old to otherwise get hired anywhere ? I think the Canadian Gov knows this might last a while as they have pumped tons of money into retraining and one can get their unemployment benefits extended as long as they are attending the course and performing. I think there is a lot of trickle down to come yet as people further tighten their pocketbooks.
I truly believe this drop is due to people running out of unemployment not getting back in the job market. I know those who left my old company last July are running out soon.
My severance lasts until August 2010. Maybe I'll find something by then.
Yeah, like a government with a conscients.
The "real" unemployment rate is 15-20%! This set of numbers is total bullshit propaganda.
I have a very very large family, and everyone is unemployed or on the block, whether they live in the NE, California, Atlantic Coast, you name it.
Some of them have run out of unemployment, while others work a few hours hear and there for a couple of bucks - but it in no way could be considered a "job."
But I am sure Larry the "derivatives guy" and "Wall Street" Geithner will be out telling us sunny days are just around the corner once again. After all, their banker cronies got all of our money.
Things are just so rosy in plutocratville.
Who knows, maybe they can put Phil Gramm back to work as spokesperson for the banking lobby and the Commerce department; doing down home commercials telling us: "ta' qwit yer' whynin', it's all in yur head."
It's a grat repuublcn' conomy.'" "Whinurs!"
They are trying to forcefully cut mine early, I am required to send in hand written claims that only they can provide, it has been a month late 2 times now, if you go for 3 weeks without a submission you are automatically purged from the system, so now the last 2 months I have been purged. Yep close to the end, any way tho, already submitted 7 of my last 15 weeks, child support is breathing down my neck and nobody will hire me. I guess I will be going to prison..............if they can find me.
This is no big mystery. When unemployment runs out you are simply dropped from the rolls. This makes things look better when in fact things are getting much worse. It is just a beaurocratic trick to tell you that you should not be bothered and everything will be ok.
Bull-shit!!!!!!!
There are so many things wrong they cannot be listed here.
Why is it that Iranians take to the streets by the MILLIONS when their election is stolen and we the wqimps in the US say "Oh, ok I guess the little idiot won.
Wake the fuck up!!!!!!!!!!!!
I remember in the 80's our president ronald ray-gun -- zap -was able to decrease the record unemployment with just his signature,he said sence every one in the military was working that thay should be listed as employed and boom unemployment went dowm.He's also the one that came up with trickle down your leg economics,Iran/contra,arms for hostages and olie north. thank god mccain is'nt the president!!
"The job market is about to thaw" is an idiot. Or they deal in numbers instead of dealing with people face to face.
The "unemployment statistics are the biggest shell game since the Social Security Trust Fund.
Here is how it works.
When you sign up, "unemployment" goes up because a new, warm body is added to the long,long, miserable list. After 13/26/52 weeks, the miserable pittance that is also taxable (adding insult to injury) runs out, and you "fall off" the end of the "roll" and *kazam* "unemployment" goes down" What it REALLY means is that that warm body is no longer drawing money. It does NOT mean that person has a job, any job has been created, or your personal "economy" is going anyplace but down, especially since you now have no job, and no money to look for one.
Wake up folks. It costs money to look for work. You now have no money. So, now what?
If you want a REAL gauge of how many people are without a job (health care, or hope) in this country, take the generated "stat" and multiply it by 1.5 times, or two, depending on how bad you think the economy is from month to month. It's the same type of dodge that's been used to under count the US dead in Iraq. Just because you don't have a job, and no one is "counting" you somehow, you don't exist. And everything is looking better, all of a sudden.
Happy happy. Except that it's a lie. Period.
How are we as a nation going to come to grips with the magnitude of the problem as long as our leaders are content to feed us a nice cozy stream of lies? We need a touch of brutal honesty, to rouse people where needed, and convince them that this is not "someone else's problem". It is our problem as a nation.
If your house is on fire, you don't say that someone is holding a barbecue and go back to reading the funny papers. You get out of the house, and grab a hose, or you're toast.
What makes this worse is when a person is unemployed and unaware that people with tapped benefits are not counted. I've spent some time in the line over the last few years so I know from experience the feeling you get while wondering 'when will I get a job?'. Add envy on top of being unemployed and the drain on morale gets progressively worse as the months roll on. The idiots in media and government who are not aware of how horrible these feelings are need to spend some time becoming acquainted with reality.
Our leaders love this. Thanks to our leaders, the american worker is down by 30 points, we have no time-outs left, and the corporations control the ball. In short, they got us by the cahonies!
Americans are getting so desperate, they are more than willing to work for less than the other guy, just to get a job.
Soon the American worker will be trying to underbid the slave labor markets in China and 3rd world countries. When this happens, the corporate takeover will be complete, and we will be able to drop all that rhetoric and business about freedom and democracy.
I am, as of June 7th, no longer included in the unemployment figures. Not that I have a job, but my benefits have been exhausted. Yipee, no longer considered unemployed......it sucks.
on the dole for years, if they didn't spend it all propping up failed companies.
Now these companies will probably fail again, and some other company will snatch them from the taxpayer at a bargain. And we'll be stuck with the loss.
It's obvous now that the stock market gains are subsidized with our job losses.
The working middle class can expect to be taxed to the max to pay for the unemployment comp checks, so corporations won't have to.
The anti-bully creed: When the bully doesn't have a concience, we have to give the bully consequences.
Every time a mass layoff occurs, or if a business starts smaller layoffs, we need some concerted public action of the Hayduke "Get Even" variety. Our illusions are gone; we know that, like the phone company layoffs in the 1970's, we will not be called back to work.
Thus, we can urge boycotts of layoff-company products, create pranksterism, run amateur or professional investigations, commit anonymous whistleblowing, and do anything and everything we can, as workers and as individuals, to make certain that those layoffs cost companies far, far more than they can make by laying us off.
This is an open invitation to brainstorming on ways and means and an incitement to action.
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