Unemployment "statistics"

Statistics are often dissected in order to create whatever picture you're looking for. So, there are the stats for new unemployment filings, which is newsworthy, and there are also the stats for the total number of Americans currently collecting unemployment. What is missing, in my opinion, are the statistics on the number of Americans who have exhausted their benefits. Even with the extensions I'm sure that some of those have run out by now so how many Americans are out of work and receiving nothing? Has there been an increase in welfare applications because of this? I guess that would belong in the "bad news" category so I doubt it will get any attention.

There is not any. What is happening is what happened to us in the last recession. People stopped looking and once they stopped looking, they were off the unemployment ranks because they did not apply. Others started to work under the table and others decided to be self=employed so those were no longer registering for unemployment. But they never got jobs at the same or near the same wages and I am sure that delivering fliers for .001 a flier does not pay even seven dollars an hour. So the government is just muddling figures around to make Obama look good.

There really isn't any good news here, except that it is not as bad as last month. This is what is going on in the stock market, expectations are so low that when a number like this doesn't look as bad, or a companies loses aren't as bad, they start to buy. The stock market is up year to date, and it has had a great rally since April, and Wall Street always recovers before the economy does. I think that people are looking for any news that isn't as bad as they thought.

Yet, there were 66,000 new government jobs last month. That isn't even good news.

Unemployment is a serious problem. It was caused by bad economic factor or lazy. I think it is a big problems to make some country that had big population to grow up. Maybe government must provide a lot of job to solve this problem.

hi ya everything should become online then all people will benefit from everything people should get exactly at home..no competition no pains and no ruins...everyone is benefit the whole world will be partying out every kid will be rich and successful. but our world is in wrong people hands so that cannot happen... we should fight for that we should rebel against many nonsense things... and people who are against this prosperity and richness...the whole world will become a beautiful place..

Good for you. You see thru the "spin" of the major media. For those who do not understand what clrumfelt is saying, here's an analogy. Imagine you are flying in the airplane of our economy and the elite richer passengers throw you off the plane. As you fall you notice after a bit that you reach terminal velocity and aren't falling quite as fast. You even notice that when you turn your body to present maxium resistance to the wind, you slow down even a little more. Is this good news? Won't you still hit the ground? What have you gained other than a micro second more of life? The unemployment statistics are the exact same thing.

There are HUGE numbers of people who have been unemployed so long that they are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits. The government finds it more convenient to just ignore those folks when they give us their statistics. Of course, that doesn't help anythging, does it?

If they are hired to take the Census they can collect unemployment until they run out or start working. Companies are can't expand because of the credit crunch and the governmnet borrowing is causing that crunch. Most of the Stimulus money is being given out but the rules on how to spend it aren't out yet and it will take a while to get them out. People are afraid to invest, look what happened to the Bond Holders of GM and Chrysler. By law they are the first in line to be paid, instead they are made out to be greedy criminals and the Unions are given the largest share of the company, the next largest share goes to a foreign company and they have no standing in court. The Americans who loaned the company money in good faith are cut out of the deal. Why would anyone loan money to a company now if the government can say well the Union has a greater stake than you. They have been working and getting paid but we will give them the company. Business is not going to expand when they don't know what the cost is going to be. What about National Health Care - How much are they going to pay. What are the taxes on the greedy corp. going to be and is it worth it to expand if the government is going to take all your profit. What about Card Check - will my company be forced to become union and have the pro labor department be the final arbitrator of the contract. What the Reagan and Bush tax cuts did was tell business to expand and make more money and hire more people. The tax cuts told the American People that her is more of your money to spend as you see fit. Uncertainty is driving the economy and everyone is going to be cautious and not take risks. Until people are given a chance to make money on their investments we will continue to be a slow nor growth economy with unemployment staying high. Remember it was the Bush tax cuts that gave us 4% unemployment for many years.

The only problem with your article here is it's based on a mistaken assumption. Unemployment rates aren't tied to unemployment insurance claims or payments. "Because unemployment insurance records relate only to persons who have applied for such benefits, and because it is impractical to actually count every unemployed person each month, the Government conducts a monthly sample survey called the Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure the extent of unemployment in the country. The CPS has been conducted in the United States every month since 1940 when it began as a Work Projects Administration program. It has been expanded and modified several times since then." http://www.bls.gov/cps/faq.htm#Ques2

It doesn't include the people who's unemployment benefits have run out either. There are a lot of people still out of work, but they are no longer eligable for unemployment benefits. They are no longer counted as unemployed. It does not include the young people who have moved back in with mom and dad either. It does not include the young people who graduated from college and still haven't gotten that first "real job" that would pay them unemployment comp. It doesn't include people who are unemployed from jobs that do not pay unemployment. There are some like that you know. It does not include those who are working just a couple of days a week to keep food on the table until they can find a job that is in their line of work. And it does not include those who have just given up. Shalom~Adoniah

it happenes to the UK too. Everyday the news tell us how many people lost their jobs. The economical crisis seems still develop. Nobody can see the end. However people's life seem not change too much. Everywhere you can see pople are shopping crazily.

I agree,cause i am one of those who been out of work for 10mos

You know how they are saying that the medical field is high in demand to get a job well, heck I have a 2 year degree as a CMA and iam currently looking for a job.the far as i have got is a interview and the reason is because i just graduated and I have no experience hell !!!!!! you got start some where right? somebody tell me if the medical field is so demanding why don't they take a look at the people with no experience also ?

No, there really isn't any good news right now. I am among the unemployed--my benefits will expire in about 3 more months. I am currently in school trying to make myself more marketable, so hopefully something will come up. All of my friends are unemployed as well....and that is saying something since they worked for companies like Nortel, Diebold, AT&T and GE. I am not looking foreward to the prospect of competing with everyone I know for a job at McDonald's in a few months.