Is unemployment getting worse?

[WhipperSnapper]

It's hard to say whether or not it's getting worse or better without knowing the actual figures (to the extent they can be determined). The government's numbers have been bogus for years because they are purposely designed to ignore many people who are unemployed. These numbers might be more realistic:

http://www.shadowstats.com/

The other big issue is that of quality of employment. There's are big differences between part-time jobs and full-time jobs and a job that pays a poverty-wage salary with no benefits or crappy benefits and a solid middle class job.

Even if the unemployment rate has decreased, quality of employment seems to have decreased significantly. People who lose solid middle class jobs can often only find poverty-wage jobs to replace them.

Is it all Obama's fault? I don't see how it could possibly all be his fault. The economic policies and trends that resulted in our current predicament have been in place for decades. Is it Obama's fault that businesses have been moving manufacturing overseas and to Mexico for decades? Is it Obama's fault that employers can hire foreigners for lower wages than Americans using the H-1B and L-1 visa programs? Is mass immigration Obama's fault? Is all of the illegal immigration that's been occurring for decades Obama's fault? (Hello, Reagan amnesty program.) Did Obama cause the housing bubble? Did Obama repeal Glass-Steagall?

No one person or even party is solely responsible for all of this. The destruction of the U.S. economy through Global Labor Arbitrage and through policies designed to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the lower classes was a group effort involving both the Republicans and the Democrats over a number of decades.

Obama might not be advocating the solutions, but he certainly isn't responsible for this mess. Who is advocating the solutions? Certainly not the free market-loving Republicans. When was the last time a Republican politician introduced a bill to end the H-1B and L-1 visa program?

 

[First]

^ facepalm.

 

[bfdd]

Meh, it's the same thing people were bitching about when Bush was in office. These are "shitty jobs"(your words not mine) being "created", plus more government work. yay we need more government employees that we can't pay because our government is broke!

 

[Franz316]

^ facepalm.

Please explain

 

[umbrella39]

Not surprising that the left/Democrats here try to stifle debate in these forums by manipulating forum rules.

Yet another blanket, hopefully these will soon be a thing of the past here as they are getting rather old and tattered...

 

[werepossum]

It's hard to say whether or not it's getting worse or better without knowing the actual figures (to the extent they can be determined). The government's numbers have been bogus for years because they are purposely designed to ignore many people who are unemployed. These numbers might be more realistic:

http://www.shadowstats.com/

The other big issue is that of quality of employment. There's are big differences between part-time jobs and full-time jobs and a job that pays a poverty-wage salary with no benefits or crappy benefits and a solid middle class job.

Even if the unemployment rate has decreased, quality of employment seems to have decreased significantly. People who lose solid middle class jobs can often only find poverty-wage jobs to replace them.

Is it all Obama's fault? I don't see how it could possibly all be his fault. The economic policies and trends that resulted in our current predicament have been in place for decades. Is it Obama's fault that businesses have been moving manufacturing overseas and to Mexico for decades? Is it Obama's fault that employers can hire foreigners for lower wages than Americans using the H-1B and L-1 visa programs? Is mass immigration Obama's fault? Is all of the illegal immigration that's been occurring for decades Obama's fault? (Hello, Reagan amnesty program.) Did Obama cause the housing bubble? Did Obama repeal Glass-Steagall?

No one person or even party is solely responsible for all of this. The destruction of the U.S. economy through Global Labor Arbitrage and through policies designed to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the lower classes was a group effort involving both the Republicans and the Democrats over a number of decades.

Obama might not be advocating the solutions, but he certainly isn't responsible for this mess. Who is advocating the solutions? Certainly not the free market-loving Republicans. When was the last time a Republican politician introduced a bill to end the H-1B and L-1 visa program?

Well said. Too much of our time and energy are being spent arguing which party is responsible. That just puts off accepting that both are responsible (albeit sometimes in different ways) and thus, that WE are responsible. We elect the people who represent us. We buy the Chinese crap that drives American manufacturers out of business. We accept the idea that we can consume more than we produce, that "someone else" can and should make up the difference.

I'm no fan of Obama's policies, but in my opinion no other President would make a major change in the rate of our recovery. I think the personal factors - lack of faith in Obama, fear of new taxes and costs - are minor compared to the major factors such as outsourcing, which means that of every dollar we spend a significant portion leaves our economy. And the longer we cling to this notion that if we only elect the right man and/or the right party we can continue to consume more than we produce, the deeper we'll sink. I'm all for electing the right man and the right party, but neither is going to solve our fundamental problems until we as a nation demand it and accept the price for doing so.

 

[Thump553]

This week's new unemployment claims was 351,000, concensus expectation was 355,000.

I haven't fished all through the thread-has the OP ever explained how he presented purported figures for the month of February without the final two weeks of the month in yet?

 

[BoomerD]

Getting worse? I dunno about that overall, but it's NOT getting better here. The last numbers released by the California EDD are for December 2011, and we're still sitting at 16.1%...up from 15.4% in November...but down from 17.5% a year ago.

 

[Oyeve]

No, I am not surprised.

All of the temporary help hired for the holidays was just laid off.

This and people who got their bonuses up and said FU to the bossman.

 

[rudder]

This week's new unemployment claims was 351,000, concensus expectation was 355,000.

I haven't fished all through the thread-has the OP ever explained how he presented purported figures for the month of February without the final two weeks of the month in yet?

http://www.gallup.com/poll/152753/Unemployment-Increases-Mid-February.aspx

 

[fskimospy]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/152753/Unemployment-Increases-Mid-February.aspx

You realize that's the link that this entire thread is based on right? You should probably go back and read the criticism of exactly what you're trying to do with it.

 

[Gibson486]

It's getting pretty bad, even for the "in demand" jobs. I was talking to a recruiter yesterday at a networking event yesterday. She said that they are getting so many resumes for each job that they have decided they have no choice but to simply outsource the recruiting to a third party. Granted, this is for a well known engineering company, but she said even the higher paid positions that usually takes months to fill are overwhelmed with responses. One post on Craigslist yields 10 responses every minute.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

It's getting pretty bad, even for the "in demand" jobs. I was talking to a recruiter yesterday at a networking event yesterday. She said that they are getting so many resumes for each job that they have decided they have no choice but to simply outsource the recruiting to a third party. Granted, this is for a well known engineering company, but she said even the higher paid positions that usually takes months to fill are overwhelmed with responses. One post on Craigslist yields 10 responses every minute.

One would hope that this might result in increased human resource jobs. However, in all likelihood, they're just using computers to screen out applications based on the presence or absence of certain keywords.

It seems like it's difficult to even receive a definitive rejection today. Instead they say, "If you are selected for an interview, we will contact you," and then you never hear from them.

 

[Thump553]

Sorry to necro but February is now over and the REAL unemployment figures for Feb are starting to be released. ADP's Private Payroll figures were just released this morning showing a +216,000 increase in private employment, in line with the +218k expected by analysts and much better than the +173,000 increase in January.

As seen by the graph at the bottom of the linked page, employment has been steadily improving for at least six months now: http://www.adpemploymentreport.com/

 

[1prophet]

Sorry to necro but February is now over and the REAL unemployment figures for Feb are starting to be released. ADP's Private Payroll figures were just released this morning showing a +216,000 increase in private employment, in line with the +218k expected by analysts and much better than the +173,000 increase in January.

As seen by the graph at the bottom of the linked page, employment has been steadily improving for at least six months now: http://www.adpemploymentreport.com/

What kind of jobs with what kind of wages and benefits?

Wait I just looked at the numbers 109,225,000 in September 2011 to 110,249,000 in February less than 1% but the graph makes it look like it went up by approximately 1/3,

talk about bullshit deceptive marketing at it's best

 

[First]

talk about bullshit deceptive marketing at it's best

Not if you can read graphs at a middle school grade level. lol.

 

[piasabird]

Have they quit paying extended unemployment?

My wife found a part time job barely making minimum wage, but I would not call that Employment. It is more like welfare. They probably consider her employment part of their success story at the White House.

 

[umbrella39]

Since when are part time jobs with no benefits something liberals are clamoring/boasting about?

 

[piasabird]

I can read a graph that says gas costs more.
I can read a graph that says groceries cost more.

 

[Throckmorton]

Since when are part time jobs with no benefits something liberals are clamoring/boasting about?

Remember when we passed that universal healthcare law with an employer mandate that required even the crappiest part time job to give workers health insurance? Oh wait, the mandate doesn't kick in for another two years. Thanks Republicans!

 

[1prophet]

Not if you can read graphs at a middle school grade level. lol.

Instead of trying to put people down to inflate your elitist ego, do some research to see how graphs are used to manipulate peoples perceptions of statistics

In this case they put 108 million at the bottom and 111 at the top and take a slice off the top of the graph to make it look bigger than it actually is, a common deception practice discussed below on the last page of the lesson.(math scores for term 1)

http://www.mindset.co.za/resources//0000042667/0000068829/0000074357/LN%20Manipulating%20Data%20L3.pdf

 

[Ketchup]

According to new Gallup numbers, February went up slightly to 9.1%. Not great, but I will wait another month before assuming any type of trend.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/153161/Unemployment-February.aspx

http://freebeacon.com/gallup-unemployment-jumps-0-5-percent-in-feb/

http://247wallst.com/2012/03/08/gallup-data-shows-higher-unemployment/

 

[dank69]

According to new Gallup numbers, February went up slightly to 9.1%. Not great, but I will wait another month before assuming any type of trend.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/153161/Unemployment-February.aspx

http://freebeacon.com/gallup-unemployment-jumps-0-5-percent-in-feb/

http://247wallst.com/2012/03/08/gallup-data-shows-higher-unemployment/

9.1% this February vs. 10.3% last February. Look, I can seasonally adjust.

 

[Ketchup]

9.1% this February vs. 10.3% last February. Look, I can seasonally adjust.

You get a cookie.

 

[Ninjahedge]

Remember when we passed that universal healthcare law with an employer mandate that required even the crappiest part time job to give workers health insurance? Oh wait, the mandate doesn't kick in for another two years. Thanks Republicans!

But yet we still sidestep (making) the law requiring caps on profits from insurance companies?

Ya.

Too many of our "Representatives" are legislating for those that pay them, not those that voted for them.

These guys need to start writing legislation that deals with an issue, not a symptom. I am tired of Medicare going up, but not limiting the charge for medication bought using it. I would like a health care bill passed that does not have some bushwhacker trying to get his state a new dog run behind the capital building tacked on at the end.

You do not put a bandaid on gangrene and blame the other guy.