Real unemployment now listed at 17.5%

SOURCE

As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed.



According to the government's broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor statistic in 1994.

Nothing we at ATS didn't already know, but the presence of some spin in the article concerned me. Notably:

Another factor that may be leading people onto the rolls of those no longer looking for jobs is the government's accommodative extensions of jobless benefits.

"Workers are unemployed for a much longer span than we've seen historically," says David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities International in New York. "Part of that may be affected by the longer availability of benefits. It reduces the incentives for an urgent job search."

Anybody else see this as being the opening salvo of the government ending the extended unemployment benefits program? We all know that the media is used as a powerfull tool by the government, both to condition the population and to manipulate how ideas are recieved. Here we have exactly that. The extended benefits program is being painted as a cause of high U-6 unemployment rather than the truth, which is the extended benefits program was needed BECAUSE OF already high (and escalating) U-6 figures.

Also notice the dramatic shift in Washington. The topic of creating jobs has essentially become a hollow issue and isn't even a cornerstone of the administration anymore. Naturally, the media is pushing the falacy of a "jobless recovery." Clearly we live in a country where the government will judge recoveries purely on Wall Street numbers and the media will follow suit and do their part to make the average American buy into the lies as well. How can we possibly be in an economic recovery when the true economy of the United States (the $$$ and buying power of the average American) continues to be in shambles and continues to erode even further? Answer: WE CAN'T. One small piece of the jigsaw puzzle has been put together... Wall Street is turning a profit. WHOOPEEE!!! The rest of the puzzle is unfinsihed and many of the pieces are missing, ensuring the puzzle can never be truly finished.

reply to post by burdman30ott6


I Posted a thread a while back that had the unemployment numbers at 21.5%. www.abovetopsecret.com...

Doesnt look good for the home team.

Wait until the christmas season will end with this years lethargic spending. Then they know it's time to panic. But, it will be far too late.

David Resler might be right or he might be an idiot. I'm probably too big an economic idiot to know which for sure, but I will say his little statement is at best half correct. Benefits are extended because there are no jobs out there. Certain people will never get certain jobs because employers who don't pay a lot aren't hiring someone overqualified...brings too much turmoil. More people have simply become unemployable. Also, people aren't going to take jobs for less money than their unemployment benefits until they have to, and that's about all that's out there right now.

you do know that due to people running out of Bennie's or not qualified for unemployment the U-6 is way off real numbers...

May economists were saying if we reached that magic U-3 of 10.2 percent that would reflect full quarter of willing wanting and able American workers out on their butt's

Now when I say willing and able I mean people who can and want to work... there are six people in my immediate family... of those all rely on my sole income, well my oldest boy, a college student has a part time job but still needs daddy to tide him over.

so keeping that major fact in mind the question becomes, can those still working support all those who aren't?

reply to post by DaddyBare


Can those still working support those who aren't? No. Ask California and all the other states (and soon to be the country) going bankrupt due to all the offshored jobs and offshore tax shelters for the rich eroding their tax bases. The three schlubs in California still working and paying taxes can't shoulder the whole burden, and why the all-knowing leaders and CEOs didn't see this coming (sarcasm...I believe they did and didn't care) is beyond me. Same principle applies to families. Eventually, those who are working won't be...they'll get sick or tired or worse, and then what?

I speak to a friend in England daily, and she shocked that our benefits even run out and that it's even a worry for us that when they do, a lot of us will probably be homeless and pretty hungry, really hungry if the foodstamp programs go the way some are speculating the unemployment program may.


[edit on 23-11-2009 by ~Lucidity]