Friday, September 4, 2009

unemployment numbers, august 2009

Less job loss claims, but higher unemployment rate?

WHUT?

Last month's report with the record job losses minus the underemployed and no-longer-looking-for-jobs made the the rate dip one-tenth of a percent. Now this month's report has a different spin of Voodoo
"The pace of U.S. job losses hit a one-year low last month but the unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent"
So how does lower job losses this time cause the unemployment rate to go up? Mystery.

Include the UNDER-employed in the figure (crap part time jobs due to necessity... BLS's "U-6" statistic) and you get the real depressing figures:
"a record 16.8 percent in August from 16.3 percent in July"
I won't even go into the stats for minorities, young Americans (18-29)... and worst of all: young blacks and hispanics.

But if you want to gaze at the depressing reality yourself, look HERE.

The last time it was this grim, I was the young minority.

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