Unemployment rises......again..... 9.2% Hiring stalls.....again

washingtonexaminer.com...

Hiring slowed to a near-standstill last month. Employers added the fewest jobs in nine months and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent.

The jobs report was released today, and again, it isnt good. Unemployment again rose.

The economy generated only 18,000 net jobs in June, the Labor Department said Friday. And the number of jobs added in May was revised down to 25,000.

Didnt the report that came out last month say 54,000 jobs were added? I guess they only meant half of that

The numbers?

Businesses added just 57,000 jobs last month— the fewest in more than a year. Governments cut 39,000 jobs.

Stocks fell because of this to

Stock futures plunged after the report's release.

This part of the article says it best

"June's employment report doesn't have a single redeeming feature," said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics. "It's awful from start to finish."

Completely awful. Then this part makes my blood boil even more.

Two years after the recession officially ended, companies are adding fewer workers despite record cash stockpiles and healthy profit margins.

Did I mention that the 9.2% unemployment isnt even the real number? Well, im pretty sure most of us on here already knew that.

The weak economy and slow hiring is causing more people to simply give up looking for work. More than a quarter-million people stopped their job searches in June. That kept the unemployment rate from rising even further. When laid-off workers stop looking for work, they are no longer counted as unemployed.

The real unemployment number? Something around 16%

Including discouraged workers and those working part time, but who would prefer full-time work, the "under-employment" rate jumped from 15.8 percent to 16.2 percent.

Unemployment has topped 8 percent for 29 months, the longest streak since the 1930s. It has never been so high so long after a recession ended. At the same point after the previous three recessions, unemployment averaged just 6.8 percent.

Yea, not so good is it? The article says the average work week has been falling to.

Edit - I have to ask, what was the highest unemployment number during the Great Recession of 08-09? Was it higher than it is right now?


Edit 2 - I decided to add a little video to.

reply to post by buni11687


I believe unemployment in the great depression was at 25% or so. However, they have since skewed the statistics. They only count those receiving unemployment benefits as the unemployed. Once unemployment benefits stop you are no longer included in the unemployed percentages. So we are likely worse then the great depression. We are nearly 3 years into this and probably will be another 5 before we come out. The rich have to spend it sometime.

reply to post by ExPostFacto


Officially the Great Depression was around 25% you are correct. Those numbers were skewed also though so it was probably closer to 35-40%

We have a bit to go before we are at those levels but this is not good news for Obama that's for sure.

reply to post by buni11687


The unemployment rate ranged from 3 - 8 %.

They also werent taking kids away from their parents for being "poor" and not having a home.

www.chron.com...

Tucked behind an iron gate at the end of a long gravel driveway in east Houston sits a small storage shed.

Outside, the corrugated steel structure is identical to the 76 others next to it, but the inside holds more than someone's possessions.

It is a home.

Inside the 12-by-25-foot shed are hand-built shelves where children's clothes are folded neatly next to canned goods, boxes of cereal and a stack of family photos. On another shelf, beside two king-size beds, textbooks lie next to board games.

Despite the cramped conditions, it overflows with love, said Charlomane Leonard, 35, as she stood in front of the shed that she, her husband, Prince Leonard, and six children have called home for years.

"That's what makes it comfortable," she said.

But to Child Protective Services, the shed is an unsafe environment for the children. After receiving a phone call about the Leonards' living conditions, agency caseworkers removed the couple's children last month.

The Leonards said their children were safe and happy and felt they were targeted by the agency because they are poor.

CPS spokeswoman Gwen Carter said poverty was not an issue and that the agency does not remove children from their parents' custody based on the family's economic circumstances, but on other factors such as unsafe living environments, abuse and neglect.

"You could live in a mansion and be in an unsafe living environment," Carter said. "It's not the place as much as it was the circumstances."

She said the agency uses removal only as a last resort, and that caseworkers try to help parents in need find ways to provide safe living conditions for their children. Carter said CPS was committed to helping the Leonards.

Read more: www.chron.com...

CPS isnt worth using for catfish bait.

The dad was working and saving to get a house. They were happy. They were being taught at home....thats really what pissed the state/feds off.

How many wetbacks do we have here that have multiple kids and multiple people in tight spaces that are being nailed? Huh?

Thats what i thought.

These folks are americans. So its ok to screw with them.

Here's the graph I was looking for...




Just in case the image doesn't work here is the link to the article.

I live in Louisville KY, the Ford plant is hiring right now, almost 2000 jobs, starting at 15.50 an hour.

I just got a job as a server, and they need more help.

There are a lot of jobs on Craigslist, right now too.

Maybe some people would rather not work what most consider crap jobs so to speak, and remain unemployed. I don't go by graphs and government propaganda on the job situation. I gauge it by how things are locally. Here in my city, people can work if they look for a job.

It took me four weeks to find this job, and that was with low to medium effort.

I believe it took me four weeks because I had been unemployed for almost a year, so working even a low paying job or a job beneath you is better than not working at all.

Also a great way to gauge the economy is how full are your malls, shopping centers, and grocery stores? Are the movies still attended by a lot people? Unemployed people have no disposable income. Employed people do.

I personally would like to see the US become more protectionist. Provide a few incentives to hiring US workers, to work inside the US. Provide a few discouragements to US companies hiring non-US workers, be it via offshore or H1 Visas. Maybe stop giving tax breaks to huge corporations that are unhappy if they merely fail to meet their projected percentage increase targets for the year, even though they happen to be in the black and turning a profit. "Oh no, we are only at a 31 percent increase in revenue above last year, instead of the 33 percent increase we projected! We need to lay off more workers and outsource outsource outsource!"

Perhaps my perspective is somewhat skewed by having been through my entire team been laid off from the company I used to work for (on the same day) and then spending two years working as a consultant and seeing the very seamy underbelly of the whole H1 Visa deal up very close and personal. I saw first-hand what happens when contractors cycle through endlessly - projects never complete, everyone on them gives up caring, it all pays the same rate, so why try to meet deadlines or cross-train the client's employees to support the end product? In fact, it's in the best interests of the vendor not to cross-train, that way you can be endlessly contracted to provide maintenance. It is a whole business model for some, oh nevermind, it's not worth going down this road. I can not for the life of me understand how upper mgt and execs fail to see what is happening all around them.

I want to see figures of unemployed americans that have gone on welfare etc. Not just those that currently qualify for unemployment benefits.

I know on my street there's hardly a home that has not been affected. Grocery stores, restaurants, clothing shops, ect., are all closing up and there's a ton of commercial real estate sitting empty. We've also got a major hospital - our largest employer- closing down soon, September, I think.
I'm seeing jobs wanting people with Bachelor's of Science or Engineering with years experience for jobs that pay 8.00 an hour. I nearly died when I saw that- that is LESS than unemployment. Almost ALL of the jobs I see are for folks with 4 year or advanced degrees.

One thing that is weird that I am seeing is that the flea markets are empty. People do not even have the money to go shop at flea markets!!! I have seen though, several tables where it looks like people are selling baby formula and such- probably in a shot to covert wic and food stamps to cash.

We're starting to see a lot of crime too, but funny I still have not seen any police patrol. Which, I'm glad in a way, but in another way, if there's been break ins and crime in an area, shouldn't they patrol at least SOME?

I thought perhaps it was because I live in an average neighborhood of working class folks, so I asked my friend Anne about her neighborhood in Buckhead, close to Atlanta. She's a lawyer as well as her husband, and they live in a very nice neighborhood. They practice business law and were doing great, but she says that lately work for them has been so bad, they are starting to have a hard time. She said there were several foreclosed homes in her neighborhood and there's been crime and breakins in the middle of the day. She said someone stole a Honda Civic the other day- a 10 year old car- out of a neighbor's driveway.

I have one neighbor who got fired after cutting himself and flunking a drug test (pot) and he's not found anything and there's no unemployment for him. I am half trying to look out for his kids and half trying to watch him because I didn't really trust him before I knew he was struggling.

Anyway, I say the news is bunk. I really like to hear what real people are seeing close to them.

reply to post by hotbakedtater


Just because your area is hiring and employment levels may be good there, doesn't mean the same conditions are as favorable everywhere else outside of your enclosed shell. Also just because someone has a job doesn't mean they necessarily have disposable income. Just because shopping centres are full of people doesn't necessarily mean business is booming, more people might not be spending. There will always be areas where stronger growth is happening and areas where weakness is apparent. The graphs and government provided statitistics pain a broad picture of the economy and in fact, probably paint a far better picture than what is really happening as they would prefer to make themselves look better rather than worse.

Actually I think this chart is more telling of the employment situation in the US as it shows the numbers employed against population levels over time.

reply to post by surrealist


HOLY COW! That is an impressive graphic. Where did you get it? It is hard to verify with no context...?

I know people including family that gave up looking for work 4 years ago.

reply to post by gwynnhwyfar


Hey mate, got it from here.

Also a great way to gauge the economy is how full are your malls, shopping centers, and grocery stores? Are the movies still attended by a lot people? Unemployed people have no disposable income. Employed people do.

reply to post by hotbakedtater


Here in the UK with the inflation in gas prices and energy prices you need to be earning a minimum of 18,000 pounds per person just to make ends meet. 18,000 sterling is about $24,000. So unless you earning a reasonable wage you wont be doing much shopping in the malls or visiting the movies

I did some searching and found this article.

It looks like this "recovery (lol!)" is defying history....

Analysis: Flat jobs data signal weakest recovery in decades

.WASHINGTON (AP) — The job market is defying history.
A dismal June employment report shows that employers are adding nowhere near as many jobs as they normally do this long after a recession has ended.

Unemployment has climbed for three straight months and is now at 9.2 percent. There's no precedent, in data going back to 1948, for such a high rate two years into what economists say is a recovery.

Well, looks like we broke another record here in 2011!

The economy added just 18,000 jobs in June. That's a fraction of the 90,000 jobs economists had expected and a sliver of the 300,000 jobs needed each month to shrink unemployment significantly.

Maybe we should just take a closer look....and say its all good

Sometimes disappointing economic reports look better on closer inspection. This one gets uglier.

Nope! Cant do it on this one!

Workers' hourly pay fell in June. They worked fewer hours.

Oh heck, might as well toss the federal reserve in here somewhere to!

The Federal Reserve has already lowered short-term interest rates to near zero. And last month, it ended a Treasury bond-purchase program that was intended to strengthen the economy.

Way to go fed!

So what is our next policy going to be?

Businesses are nervous about the economic outlook now that the Fed and Congress seem to have ended their efforts to stimulate growth, says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates.

"The policy cupboard is pretty bare, and we can see what the emperor looks like disrobed," Rosenberg says. "It's not a pretty picture."

Nothing!

Edit - Here's another splendid part of the article I forgot to add.

The tepid recovery is taking a toll on consumers, whose spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. The Conference Board business group said last week that its consumer confidence index fell to 58.5 in June. A healthy reading is 90. At this point after the previous three recessions, the index averaged 87.

58.5 when the healthy reading should be 90?!

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
There are a lot of jobs on Craigslist, right now too.

And a whole bunch of those are scams designed to collect your information or worse.

If you want to use Craigslist as a barometer on employment, check the services section. In my area, there are far more people advertising computer repair, pet walking, moving, and other easy set up services than there are actual employment listings.

While it is good that people pick up other things for cash, eventually others will pick up the same ideas and competition will become fierce.

Looks like 'trickle up' economics also failed. All those shovel ready programs simply siphoned off your tax dollars into the pockets of crooked politicians and unions.

Billions of dollars were poured into social programs and disappeared.

Remember when the luxury tax put people out of work who built yachts and sports cars? Killed entire companies if I recall.

Envy taxes don't work. Creating bubbles for political economic boosts have negative outcomes also.

Originally posted by Dbriefed
Looks like 'trickle up' economics also failed. All those shovel ready programs simply siphoned off your tax dollars into the pockets of crooked politicians and unions.

Billions of dollars were poured into social programs and disappeared.

Remember when the luxury tax put people out of work who built yachts and sports cars? Killed entire companies if I recall.

Envy taxes don't work. Creating bubbles for political economic boosts have negative outcomes also.

Last I looked they just extended the tax breaks, last I looked we gave them some billions of dollars to prop them up, last I looked the only people suffering are not the very rich. WTH do you even live in America? Or do you live under a rock?

reply to post by gwynnhwyfar


That's only possible if you have enough local oil. And metals. Which mostly come from Australia. And even if you do have oil, extracting them is expensive since you have to lay out the infra that already exists in other areas of the world. And rest assured, the world will retaliate economically.

As for the H1 visas? try this:

I can state with assurance that the last generation of white children is now being born. Our Control Commissions will, in the interests of peace and wiping out inter-racial tensions. Forbid the Whites to mate with Whites. The White Women must cohabit with members of the dark races, the White Men with black women. Thus the White Race will disappear, for the mixing of the dark with the White means the end of the White Man, and our most dangerous enemy will become only a memory.

Oh, you can also blame Global Crossing for bullding a fiber optic network to India and practically give away that network to the indians for a whopping 96% discount! Can you guess what the network was for? No, it ain't really for the internet.