We're Breaking Records for Long-Term Unemployment. It's Worse Than They Admit.
When the above interview was taped in January, the actual unemployment rate was 14%. Now it's around 15.5%. And NYT financial columnist Floyd Norris takes a look at some other depressing numbers from a recent release from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development:
As I went over the numbers, the one that leaped out at me was that the auto manufacturing business had added 28,200 workers. Added? That sure is not the impression you’d get from the reports coming from Detroit.
It turns out those are seasonally adjusted numbers. Before seasonal adjustment, the number of auto workers fell by 8,600. I doubt the seasonal adjustment factors have much to do with current trends.
Still, it is clear that things are getting worse slowly. Fewer people are losing their jobs. But long-term unemployment is higher than ever.
The number of unemployed people who have been unemployed for 14 weeks or less was 6.79 million in July, the lowest figure for that group since December. But the number unemployed for 15 weeks or more was 7.88 million, up 74 percent since December and the highest figure ever.
For the first time ever — or at least since the government started counting the figures in 1948 — more than a third of the unemployed have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. The average unemployed person had been jobless for less than 20 weeks at the end of last year. Now the figure is over 25 weeks.
Is it good news that fewer people are losing their jobs? Yes. Is it bad news that the number of long-term unemployed is rising? Yes.
This week, I realized it was the one-year anniversary of my layoff. Yikes.
Unemployment seemingly dropped in July (from 9.5 to 9.4%, the U6 number is more like 20%), even though 247,000 people lost their jobs (watch for the Ministry of Truth to revise those numbers for the worse, they always do) because fewer were counted in the labor force.
Stop counting ALL of those unemployed people as being in the labor force (they don't work cause they don't want to work, RIGHT?), and PUFF everything is wonderful again. Zero unemployment, just imagine.
We have so few real journalists, no one will go out and take pictures of the all of the tent cities.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Official statistics like high level accounting, in America, is based primarily on deceptive practices.
We have been doing it for years, the CPI, the GDP. the 'inflation rate', all cooked to a fair-thee-well.
They would not like to pay those Social Security recipients the REAL COLA increase. Or pay the REAL INFLATION RATE interest rate on the National Debt.
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My hero, William K Black speaks on the Bankster white collar crime epidemic.
He is really on top of his profession.
I can not get enough of W K Black, Michael Hudson, James Galbraith, Dean Baker, to name the ones on the tip of the tongue, the left ward economists who will not take the crap we are being handed.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
The fix is in, and no right-wingnuter will say 'Capitalism is NOT the only way.'
FOR the first time since the Depression, the American economy has added virtually no jobs in the private sector over a 10-year period.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/business/ec...
I'm not surprised. Most of my family and I work within the government, either local, state, etc. My brother hasn't been in the US for almost a year since he is away in China teaching English under a program called "English First" possibly under the US/Chinese State dept. He may practically be an ex-pat, depending on his Visa.
..............the Truth, no matter what variety has been twisted beyond recognition.
and again...bring back all the outsourced jobs and rethink all the bs trade agreements
Outsoueceing "IS GOOD for America". bush hated the people of America for kicking his dad out of office. Whate did he do for revenge, Look at this country be for bush. Now look at what is left after 8 years. His last boost for his buds was the melt down and the billions of TAX Dollars to his campaine buds on walstreet and the bankers. Then comes along the American Auto Worker. What did he do for them, fuck you, you Liberal Union worker.
"We are corporate America - F*ck you, I'm profiting off your blood and sweat!"
Sometimes i wonder if people in this country live in a fog, as they fail to see that US style capitalism is not the *only* way...
I guess shipping jobs overseas is the American way.......
warning that the plague of "casino capitalism" is returning to some banking centers again also.
As if they ever left?
billion 10^9
trillion 10^12
quadrillion 10^15
quintillion 10^18
sextillion 10^21
octillion 10^27
sexvigintillion 10^81 (number of hydrogen atoms in the universe - bankers' goal is to own them all, +5%
Yikes! Scary monopoly!...Also, you seemed to have forgotten to fill in: septillion 10^24, but you must be excellent with numbers anyway.
If this kleptocracy gets dumber and dumber with power, they may say what Dr. Evil from Austin Powers said, "Why make trillions when you can make billions?" LOL!
Don't give a shit about the working class of America. They have fucked over the American worker for the last 40 years. Profit,profit,profit. That is all they want any way they can get it. Move there companie to out of the US so NOT to pay taxes. Hell, the other day I called Timewarner for some tec help and my call went to fucking India. WTF. when you call american banks, Dell, HP,and lots of so called American compianes, your call ends up with some one from another country. Like I said WTF. these companies dot want to pay taxs, but they will as hell Take American Tax money.
few years are going to get worse , soon we will be able to suffer the pits of our labor .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
For those of us that are still employed and underemployed, we ought to be thankful for it however long it will likely last.
it rubs me the wrong way to hear someone say they are thankful for being underemployed. It is probably part of the reason I still think unions are crucial to the American worker.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
hopefully there isn't any eligibility involved when it comes to joining a union, even by working for the gov't? Can anyone who is employed or underemployed join a union, regardless of where they work in the US?
It will get better. Bush didn't destroy it overnight and Obama can't restore it overnight. Leave the whining for the repugs.
It's amazing that Bush was capable of hiding behind 9/11 to make an excuse to invade Iraq, but I wonder if Obama would use the excuse of him inheriting a bad economy while it is getting worse.
Democrats are great at destroying themselves through defeatism.
!
we force companies who have outsourced jobs to bring them home
fuck india and the philipines
We lost jobs the whole eight years of the bush debacle!
we will be lucky if we ever have a functioning economy again!
republicanism is a mental illness!
That is the secondary function of politics (The primary function being to get re-elected.) Let them know its ok. Thats why the repubs have gone nuclear with their rhetoric, because they functionally out of office. They have next to no power except to be anti anything those in power are for.
Let's see: record numbers of people out of work with no jobs in sight - but massive bonuses for Wall St. after we funneled billions to them. We're not only still stuck in Iraq (remember how everyone just had to vote for Obama over Hillary because of her war vote?) but expanding deeper into Afghanistan. "Clean coal" and mountaintop mining are still here, and cap-and-trade is another incremental change in the middle of a climate emergency. Oh, and healthcare reform has now become a nibble-around-the-edges "insurance reform."
Now, if you want to feel good about all that, don't let me stop you.
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
Keep it up susie I'd rather listen to a realist that a "just another cycle" alternate reality specialist.
Obama may have only been in office for six months but there is nothing wrong with criticizing his stated policy on what he says he will do in the next42 months
.
I get around the gloom by laughing at the total stupidity of republicans and the American people. It helps me get through the knowledge that we are really so totally screwed, and that these morons are gonna take us all down with them.
Since the Bush/Cheney junta was thrust into power, my immediate family has seen 2 very successful small businesses - that were around for decades, nearly go belly up. Seven, that's 7 siblings have lost jobs and were unemployed for over 1 year, and 5 of them for over 2 years each. Four others are underemployed, and three others need a job, but can't find one. And that's just MY immediate family!
Before Bush "the idiot" and his fascist GOP goons took over, all of these people had been very successful hard working professionals. Most have college degrees. Remember how NAFTA was gonna be a boom for the educated? All them High-Tech jobs? Yeah, right. Whatever.
Yet, several of them voted for McInsane and crazy-ass Palin.
My wife's best friend is about to lose her job with the county, but it's okay with her, because she watches Glenn Beck and she feels it is very important to stop gay marriage and Mexican's. She doesn't even know any gays or Mexican's!
And now, the unemployed teabagger morons down the street are marching to the townhall, so they can show their support for the corporate fascsit CEO's from the Insurance giants who have screwed the shit out of them royally. It's like watching some sadistic asshole beat someone with a 2 X 4, and then watch the idiot victim yell at the cops for trying to stop his assulter from doing his job. Then, going ahead and giving the sadistic assulter permission to continue the beating.
YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP.
Holy shit, we are sooooo screwed.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
I could not agree more. NAFTA was the begining of the end.
The giant sucking sound you hear is all the taxpayer money that has gone to the big corporations to help them avoid taxes and helped them avoid being responsible citizens of the planet.
They used our money to pay these people to move plants to other countries, they have helped the insurance and banking companies to rob us. Yet they still have a job at our expense!
Is there any other conclusion that can be drawn from our current condition?
republicanism is a mental illness!
I just don't get it either. These people just can't get enough of beck,hanadie(still wont do the water board thing he said he was going to do)and drugie fatass limbought or fux news?
If I remember 6 months ago we were looking at a global recession and as a country we were talking about a pending depression. That didn't happen but no credit there. Job losses are the lagging indicater of a recession and job losses will continue as the economy begins to recover. Wasn't Obama supposed to have a year to a year and a half to fix this enormous economy mess? Why is he only getting a few months? We are exiting Iraq in a responsible manner, but no credit there. We are doing exactly what he said he would do in Afghanistan and just eliminated a high level Taliban leader, but no credit there. Bush enacted the bank bailout but all sorts of blame for Obama there. Sotomayor confrimed. Cash for Clunkers, huge success and providing stimulus and activity. Majority of stimulus plan now kicking in heading toward the holiday hiring season. Wake up, good things are happening but it is so much more fun playing the know it all, do nothing complainer.
For Supreme Court reasons alone, Obama was the better choice. His largest corporate campaign donors came from the finance/insurance sector, so, I'm seeing what I expected. If Obama hadn't been a corporate stooge, then the Reverend Wright would have been plastered on the Nightly News for the 2 months leading into the election, and McCain would have prevailed.
It was a surprise that he put Hillary in charge of foreign policy, given that foreign policy was the difference between the two.
In Afghanistan, I do not support Obama's 10 year plan. I support a 2 year plan, in which we take a couple of swings now at Al-Quaeda that we never took. In particular, while India is rooting them out, we should be preventing them from falling back into Afghanistan.
As far as health care is concerned, it was quite clear that the data, or facts relating to cost analysis favored a system copied from another country with much better costs. Since the facts didn't support the status quo, it was quite clear that the advocates of maintaining corporate profits would have to resort to histrionics. But, I think there has been more than a few Democrats, in the pursuit of "bipartisanship", that have let the histrionics slide to preserve the corporate profits, and now we see Harold and Louise advocating passage? What we've been witnessing is government for sale, largely by the Congress.
I think that we have this period right now, in which we mortgaged our futures by this federal borrowing, to get our house in order. I don't think the job is getting done, and I think it's at least 50/50 that they'll be a double dip recession, the 2nd dip occurring after the 2010 elections.
I can't say that I feel good about the situation, but I feel better than if McCain was president.
I'm with you all the way. People do not want to see............by now you know that already. And, this is not a 'recession' it is a DEPRESSION and everyone who is free, free economists have said this is going to be much, much worse that 1929, so of course, we need to force-feed 'optimism' about the economy which is just so much 'happy talk' for the peóns. O-bought-ma is just another 'bait/switch' technique probably right out of Goebbles playbook.
I'm tired of complacency and accepting as 'normal' a FASCIST coup de 'etat in 2000. This is not a 'global recession' it is an orchestrated take down of the peóns ----- It's called DEPRESSION!!!! And Mr. Tired of Greed, pull your head out of your butt.
massive bonuses for wallstreet. let me see, was that the first bail out UNDER BUSH.
Are you happy that he has hired Geithner and Summers as his economic guys. The same guys that didn't see the greatest rip off of working class wealth in history via the sub prime mortgage scam.
The same guys that have happily watched $4.5 trillion be funneled to the Wall Street Mafia.
$6 trillion in housing value lost, $8 trillion in equity market lost, 401k and pension funds pummeled.
The supposed good news week is part of the second coming of the great swindle. It is suckers' rally, nothing fundamentally has changed, it is pump and dump.
The same Banksters that got us here are still in place, with their $32 billion in bonus money, courtesy of the Beaucoup de Bailout Billions.
Only there is fewer of them and their power is even more concentrated.
They still have their phony balance sheets with most of the toxic assets still in place, the ones that the Fed hasn't taken as colateral for loans, waiting to blow up with the next crisis, coming soon.
The same phony accounting only worse with the FASB blow off of mark to market.
The MIC, the CIA and 'wars' for the war profiteers roll right along.
Hire 10,000 FBI investigators and throw the crooks in jail.
See Wm K Black here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Chump. If we do that, we have to let ALL criminals go free. Not just those in the Cheney/Bush administration. We also can no longer learn from our mistakes. And we must endlessly repeat history, like an unintentional loop in a computer program. This is one of the most inane arguments I have ever heard. Is this BHO's reasoning behind not changing Bush policies? Yes it is! I must insist that we look back and fix what is wrong. Now.
At least some of us have hope. Could ya chisel off a piece for me?
Susie was a big time PUMA promoter on her own site. She claimed to be somewhat neutral but the reality was that her postings were very tilted and even after Clinton had clearly lost she kept up a great deal of highly pumaesque BS about Obama.
The only thing wrong with your post is that Susie has been whining for about 10 months of the 6 months Obama has been in office. To paraphrase Hillary:
...If he walked on water, she would say he can't swim.
.............it would be winter and he'd be walking on the thin ice.
If I remember 6 months ago we were looking at a global recession and as a country we were talking about a pending depression. That didn't happen but no credit there. Job losses are the lagging indicater of a recession and job losses will continue as the economy begins to recover. Wasn't Obama supposed to have a year to a year and a half to fix this enormous economy mess? Why is he only getting a few months? We are exiting Iraq in a responsible manner, but no credit there. We are doing exactly what he said he would do in Afghanistan and just eliminated a high level Taliban leader, but no credit there. Bush enacted the bank bailout but all sorts of blame for Obama there. Sotomayor confrimed. Cash for Clunkers, huge success and providing stimulus and activity. Majority of stimulus plan now kicking in heading toward the holiday hiring season. Wake up, good things are happening but it is so much more fun playing the know it all, do nothing complainer.
Tired of Greed
Tired and complacent is more like it.
OBTW - Obama could have stopped the $700 billion TARP heist, he voted for it.
The Right Wing wants Obama to FAIL, at whatever.
The Left Wing wants him to SUCCEED:
AT DOING THE RIGHT THINGS.
John Nichols at the Nation
here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
oh so we can now get jobs selling toys made in china and anywhere but here , tell me what is it you do for your pay check , because it does not sound like you are in the MFG sector .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
My wife's been out of work for 18 months now. Out of unemployment. She can't even get interviews. I'm giving up the phones and cable at the end of the month, the internet will go after they pry the keyboard from my "cold dead hands". Jesus Christ 2 college educated people and we can't even afford cable. How pathetic. At least we have our health. For now.
Sorry to hear that.
It really is disgusting to see the pigs steal trillions, while millions of good people can barely survive.
My wife used her college degree to become the computer guru for an entire engineering group at Ford's.
Now that our kids are old enough for her to work again, she can't even get a job interview. Absolutely sickening.
Welcome to Republicanland.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
The solution is quite simple. Move to India.
As people use up all of their unemployment, they stop their weekly interaction with the UI office, and hence, aren't counted. If another extension is approved, then we'll have another spike in unemployment.
Right now, you can collect for over a year in my state.
if no extension then tent city , so much for 40+ years working in the trades .
And if Boeing ever leaves ( been the rumor for yrs ) Seattle , kiss this place good-bye . For yrs i built tooling for Boeing , the last project i supervised was a job that was bid at 35,000 hours , maybe you have seen another tool we built that boeing uses to spin the fuselage of the 787 , i set all the gears ( the main gear had over 500 hrs machine time and weighed about 5000 lbs ) and all the motors all set to within .005 + or - .001 , yet finding a job flipping burgers at my age has proved to be impossible .
Never thought i would see times like these sad utterly sad , for me one of the saddest parts is having worked with young people over the years , most of them wanting to learn the trade , knew that they could never make it in school , what about them , it is hard to think of being young and married with kids and not be able to put the beans on the table .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
the retard gov. refused the cash for unemployed people in texas. I just like how these repugs let bush run this country in the hole, Now they are worried about the money for unenemployment to help a working class. hell, back in Oct 2007, they rushed a vote to help wallstreet and there bank buds With Our Money!!!
Then pay attention to this Argentinian study of swine flu created by you already know who.
companies were getting upset because all the banks were getting free money. the drug companies were makinf tooooo much money to get in on the free money,sooooooooooooooooo, Lets create a New FLU. Hell, the old flu killed about 25 to 30 thousand people a year. I guess no one gives a shit about that. But it worked. Now our wonderfull gov is giveing the drug companies 1.3 BILLION. good job.
We bring to the attention of Global Research readers this important commentary by Dr.Joseph Mercola.
The fundamental issue is who owns the intellectual property rights over Tamiflu. The media reports suggest that the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche will make billions.
While the drug is produced by Roche, it was developed by Gilead Sciences Inc.which owns the intellectual property rights. Gilead, which has maintained a low profile, has outsourced the production to Roche.
Donald Rumsfeld was appointed Chairman of Gilead Sciences, Inc. in 1997, a position which he held in the years prior to becoming Secretary of Defense.in the Bush adminstration. Rumsfeld had been on the Board of Directors from the establishment of Gilead in 1987.
As confirmed in a company press statement in 1997, Donald H. Rumsfeld assumed the position of Chairman, of GILEAD: :
"Gilead is fortunate to have had Don Rumsfeld as a stalwart board member since the company's earliest days, and we are very pleased that he has accepted the Chairmanship," Dr. Riordan said. "He has played an important role in helping to build and steer the company. His broad experience in leadership positions in both industry and government will serve us well as Gilead continues to build its commercial presence."
According to company statement: Gilead Science Inc "has been active in the development of inhibitors for the potential treatment and prevention of viral influenza and protease inhibitors for the potential treatment of HIV"
"The Company's research and development efforts encompass three interrelated programs: small molecule antivirals, cardiovascular therapeutics and genetic code blockers for cancer and other diseases. Gilead's expertise in each of these areas has also resulted in the discovery and development of non-nucleotide product candidates, including neuraminidase inhibitors for the potential treatment and prevention of viral influenza and protease inhibitors for the potential treatment of HIV"
NOT PRETTY AT ALL.
Out here in the heartland the economy feels like a house of cards just waiting for a good wind.
I work in a very public place (Hospital) and come in private contact with lots of people from all walks of life each day. You talk to them and listen to them and hear a lot of fear, apprehension and unfortunately- resignation. Many have been beat down for so long that they really do not expect things to get better and just keep bailing water like they always have.
Another aspect of my job is that working in the evenings allows me to get out and about every day. Nobody is buying anything they absolutely have to, cutting corners where they can and bracing for the wind that is going to blow the house of cards down. The other thing you notice is the huge number of people of working age that are not working at all.
“We Do Deserve What Is Coming...”
It’s a partial list, but does have some enlightening “memories.”
Enjoy your reality...
Why do politicians always seem to skirt the obvious question? Most on main street have lived long enough to know that money buys power and influence. Yet in recent memory only one politician ( Dick Durbin ) actually blurted it out. The money interests on Wall Street own the government. The next question should be, how do we change this? How do we get our elected officials attention? Do we march on Washington en mass? Do we form a tax revolt and take our money power away from those we elected? It's not like they can arrest the entire country. But in the end, we have to get off our butts and take a stand. We have to talk truth to power in order to get power to change it's mind set and do what's right for all rather than those at the top who continue to rape the system at our expense.
Companies are finding that their current workers are so grateful to have a job they will do the work of two people for the pay of one. Corporations are running "leaner" to save cash, and it will most likely stay that way for the long term. The last company I worked for didn't hire to refill half the positions they lost through voluntary or involuntary termination. Everyone who still works there is mightily pissed. The out of work are still out of work, and the employed are overworked, frightened and exhausted.
Capitalism at your service!
I guess shipping jobs overseas is the American way.......
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It is the global way. Japan builds cars in the U.S.
If I remember 6 months ago we were looking at a global recession and as a country we were talking about a pending depression. That didn't happen but no credit there.
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It wasn't a pending depression, it is a depression.
U-6 unemployment at 16%.
A record credit bubble burst and the government is turning itself into a record bubble attempting to counter it. Every bubble bursts.
Details may vary, but we are looking at the 1930's again.
I could not agree more. NAFTA was the beginning of the end.
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The peak of inflation in 1980 was the beginning of the end. Every inflation ends in a deflation. NAFTA was just part of the deflationary process. If not NAFTA, something else would have moved the process of deflation along. The 800 pound gorilla in the room is China, with 1.3 billion people, who could not be kept out of the world economy forever. Cycles cannot be prevented from occurring. Ben Bernanke said he knew how to prevent deflation from happening here. It happened anyway. The cycle is bigger than anyone's ability to control it.
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