Article

2009-08-07 Economy

US July Job Loss not as horrible as feared

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Posted by Lord garth 2009-08-07 11:11|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 Folks: The people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits are no longer counted as unemployed, the people who got part time jobs instead of full time, are also not included in the 9.6 %, also the people who were reduced from 40- hours to 32- hours are not figured into the average !! And the people who accept wage cuts are not in this total. Also, the people who live on the streets are not included and any person who graduated from high school and never had a job, also are not figured into this 9.6% . This number was adopted by the Republican party and has never been debated !! The truth is Folks, no employment is unbelievable and our people are starving, losing their houses and life savings, no health care, and the illegals in this country are draining our system dry. Folks: Believe what you want, I don"t care. But, you will see the future will be a new experience for us all with little credit available, your mortgage is higher then your house is worth, you have little or no money saved, and you will learn to live a life of wanting and never having !!!! Good Luck Folks and I hope you are ready for CHANGE !!

Posted by armyguy 2009-08-07 12:44|| 2009-08-07 12:44|| Front Page Top

#2 gerachty has the numbers:
In June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the civilian labor force was 154,926,000 people.

In July, 796,000 of those were taken out of their definition of the workforce, and thus their unemployment calculations for this month, because they have stopped looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. Ten percent of the June workforce would be 15.4 million, 1 percent would be 1.5 million, and so 796,000 is roughly one half of one percent.

In other words, BLS took .5 percent of what you and I would consider unemployed and took them out of their total. And with that, unemployment went down one tenth of one percent.

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-08-07 13:01|| 2009-08-07 13:01|| Front Page Top

#3 There was a large increase in layoffs beginning Jan 2009. Those, still unemployed, bennies are now expiring and are being magically removed from the unemployment rolls. The more relavent number is total employed. And remember the US needs to add 1.5 million jobs/year (1%) just to keep up with population growth, so anything under 1% delta means increasing *real* unemployment.

% change in employment
The graph also shows this is the worst employment crisis since 1962.

Posted by ed 2009-08-07 13:21|| 2009-08-07 13:21|| Front Page Top

#4 In times past when slow downs occurred, Congress would extend unemployment benefits for those who ran out of benefits without finding a job. Not likely to happen this time since that would increase the number of people counted as unemployed.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2009-08-07 14:18|| 2009-08-07 14:18|| Front Page Top

#5 Labor force participation is a tricky number. People leave the work force for various reasons
- death
- incarceration
- inducted into the armed forces
- married a high wage earner
- retired
- started a sole proprietor business
- discouraged

and of course the BLS number for the work force participation is based on a sample (fairly large sample but just a sample).

Posted by Lord garth 2009-08-07 15:10|| 2009-08-07 15:10|| Front Page Top

#6 Previous administrations have also removed from the unemployment ranks those who have quit looking for a job, so it's not a new policy.

In the past, when a Republican was president, you'd always hear about the millions who had given up. Now that Bambi is president, you see articles about how much fun it is to go to the beach when you're unemployed.

Posted by Steve White 2009-08-07 15:33|| 2009-08-07 15:33|| Front Page Top

#7 Funemployed!

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-08-07 15:34|| 2009-08-07 15:34|| Front Page Top

#8 Perspective:
That's every man woman and child (maybe U student too) in the City of Lincoln NE - Laid off.

That's every man woman child and pol in Austin Tx taken off the job roles with expired benefits.

Posted by 3dc 2009-08-07 15:44|| 2009-08-07 15:44|| Front Page Top

#9 This means tax revenues will decline even further, and brings closer the day when governments have to make mass layoffs further decreasing revenues. This process has quite a ways to go and current predictions of the end of the recession are much too optimistic.

Posted by phil_b 2009-08-07 21:46|| 2009-08-07 21:46|| Front Page Top

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