Two interesting articles:
Factors showing real unemployment is higher than official figures.
Production workers have nothing to do.
# 185,000 workers in the June number were the product of statistical sampling, but could not be verified by the government.
# Companies are asking employees to take unpaid leave.
# 1.4 million unemployed workers weren’t counted because they’re not searching for work.
# Part-time employment has doubled to 9 million.
# The work week is 48 minutes shorter than when the recession began.
# The number of long-term unemployed (4.4 million) is at an all-time high.
Yes, cutting back on labor is the easiest way to reduce costs in the short-run. Ask the UAW how well it has worked for them with their efforts to insulate themselves from this fact.
So, with Crap & Fade adding costs at all levels of business, inevitable tax increases to pay for porkulus, we’ll see UM worsen…
Gonna keep looking worse for the next 6 months at least. Plan accordingly.
Golly gee. Sounds like we’re in a recession. Who’da thunk it?
This is nothing new. The “official” unemployment rate has always excluded entire classes of the unemployed, underemployed, and just plain fu**ed.
But, it does a reasonable job of showing the ups and downs of unemployment since the excluded folks go up and down at about the same ratio as the actual counted unemployed.
This is another one of those deceptive graphs. Why couldn’t they put the Y-axis from 0 to 40, instead of making it look like things have dropped to 0? This is a drop of 6 hours out of 39. Not sure what production workers means, but it could just be that the effect of having more part-time workers.
Yes “unemployment rate” has always been only slightly more valid than Neilson ratings. Unemployment rate doesn’t count people who have given up looking and a number of other categories of people.
Would the government lie to us? Duh, yes Virginia, constantly and with no remorse.
# 6 MikeN said, “Why couldn’t they put the Y-axis from 0 to 40, instead of making it look like things have dropped to 0?”
It only looks like that if you don’t read the graph. The way you suggested would make it look flat and you would see nothing even though the “spread” is around 16% of the total.
I still remember back when the Reagan Admistration dicked with how the Cost of Living figures were computed. Did they take out housing prices or something. Yeah, these barometers of bad news keep getting adjust for political expediency.
In the manufacturing facility where I work the employees on the line are working 24hrs/week.
Three days a week? Not good but not unemployed. I’m not sure they can live on that long term.
I just got in from Detroit and all I saw were shiny new cars and people shopping and dining like there was no tomorrow – which there isn’t.
unemployment figures only count people that are reciving unemployment benifits, if you dont get a job and the benefits run out you are not counted and unemployed. SUPRISE!
also all the people that are incarcerated are unemployed, they however are not included in this… OOOPPS!
enemplyment rate is far larger then business is willing to admit… and it is going to get worse..
this recession is caused be the baby boomers starting to die off. The economy rode the baby boomer wave it crested a while ago. As the boomers retire and their health collectivly starts to fail, they need to puul their money out of the markets, guess what happens next.. UH OH! ECONOMIC DEPRESSION!!!
This is gonna get worse. wayyyy worse..
They have been lying about unemployment figures since the Kennedy administration. An article from a year ago spells out the number fudging of the government pretty well.
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/0082023
Yes, your elected government has been lying about unemployment since they passed the unfair trade acts that have really caused this recession. They have lied about almost everything. And YOU voted for them !!!!!
Don’t worry, if the Dems manage to push through the EFCA this year, you can expect the employment situation to get even worse before it gets better.
This is a problem we made. Our corporate big business barons refuse to keep jobs in the USA, Americans refuse to buy slightly more expensive domestic goods, and government refuses to penalize corporations that care more in CEO salaries than keeping our workers employed.
#18 GetSmart,
You are clicking the heels of those ruby slippers together, right?
Gee, I wonder how all this unemployment could possibly have happened?
That damned Obama. He’s been in power less than a year and just look at all the misery and pain he’s caused!
I think Bush and Cheney should be returned to power immediately before the entire country, indeed the entire world gets raped by the wealthy.
Nooooooooooo! Government figures fudged! For God’s sake, read a book. Here’s a bunch of examples:
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data
“The SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated “discouraged workers” defined away during the Clinton Administration added to the existing BLS estimates of level U-6 unemployment.”
This makes the current rate about 20.5% The Great Depression had a 25% rate (IIRC), but back then the vast majority of families were ONE income families, so the effect was much greater (other factors were involved too, of course).
And if you want a nice explanation of how Consumer Price Index figures were intentionally and specifically fudged by the Boskin Commission to lower cost of living adjustments to fedgov entitlement program recipients, read the excellent book, “Greenspan’s Bubbles.” This fudging of an important economic stat to be significantly lower than it should be then led to a continuous maladjustment of the economy via the interest rates set by The Fed. Garbage in, garbage out…