Great news! US uneployment rate won't rise much further

An exodus of discouraged workers from the job market kept the U.S. unemployment rate from climbing above 10 percent in December, economists said.

Had the labor force not decreased by 661,000 last month, the jobless rate would have been 10.4 percent...

www.bloomberg.com...

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[edit on 9-1-2010 by 12m8keall2c]

reply to post by eldard


So all they have to do is round up some more of the under employed and ship them off to FEMA camps. I mean it’s not like they all could have been working for the academy of the arts or anything. That will reduce the work force numbers back down to 7% unemployment and we will all be saved.
Yaaaaaa……. We love you Obama …….
Are we HOPING for some real CHANGE yet?

reply to post by eldard


Maybe my brain isn't working at the moment, but that quote makes absolutely no sense to me at all:

An exodus of discouraged workers from the job market kept the U.S. unemployment rate from climbing above 10 percent in December, economists said.

How can it be that people leaving the job market keep the the unemployment number under 10 percent?

If my nation has 100 citizens, and nine are unemployed one month, that means 9% unemployment. If two more people leave, my unemployment doesn't stay under 10%, it climbs.

Had the labor force not decreased by 661,000 last month, the jobless rate would have been 10.4 percent...

Again here, how does the labor force decreasing keep the unemployment number lower?

Like I said, maybe my brain just isn't working right at the moment, but these quotes make no sense to me.

reply to post by octotom


It's simple - the unemployment rate is a measure of unemployed workers who are actively seeking employment. It's all smoke and mirrors. Personally, I don't believe that 600,00+ permanently exited the workforce. It sounds like a contrived number to hide the fact that we are going straight down the sh*tter! What is interesting to me is that every month DOL releases the "New jobless claims numbers", get positive press about how the number isn't as bad as they thought so things must be getting better, and then have to quietly revise that number later with almost no acknowledgement by the MSM! That has been the case 5 months in a row - more proof that the whole political machine is filled with LIARS!!!

reply to post by octotom


These former workers left the job market. They lost their jobs some time ago. They have given up looking for work, hence, they left the job market. Unemployment statistics are basically based on people who are currently out of work and drawing unemployment checks. Once the checks run out, they are no longer counted among the unemployed.

Media lies what a surprise. I trust them little to inform me and especially when it comes to the economy. My favourite bit was the jobless recovery a few months ago. If jobs are a lagging indicator and the only way they can spin it is to count the number of people not getting unemployment, is that really a recovery?

I hear one day the economy is healing, the next day the sombre host tells me they were a little exuberant and things don't look quite as rosy.

Up here, every time I here something about the recovery its tied into the stock market as if the job seeking peoples abiulity to by food is tied into the biggest casino in the world. its all a bad joke.

reply to post by eldard


Just think , if the economy performs with the same numbers next month.

The Government should say that 1 million left the work force,

then they could show a 350,000 job INCREASE.

I agree with you all 100%
I shake my head when I hear this crap.
How can they possibly know how many workers 'left' the job market without a census. The majority of these unemployed people are looking for work all right, there just aren't many jobs available, so the economists and govt assume that they aren't looking for work (i'm waiting for the media to go off on that stupid pretext and start showing segments about "those lazy Americans who refuse to work in a growing economy and what to do with them...").
Something that raises a red flag is when the dumb-ass 'business shows' (ala the Velshi-Romans propaganda hour on CNN, etc.) tell you how many companies are just dying to hire new workers and those jobs are largely engineering jobs (which are mostly filled via H1B visas) and home healthcare workers such as Home Health Aides (which cannot pay a living wage).

The American Mainstream Media: keeping the people fat, dumb, & happy 'till the end - and doing a damn good job!

If they "left", where did they go?

Is that a euphemism for dead?

That's about the only way they would not factor in.

If you don't like how the numbers come out, change the definitions.

reply to post by TypeSH2001


Ok don't worry the government just revealed that they are hiring something along the lines of 40K census workers in the next few months. LOL. The US economy is a complete and utter joke.

Even if the unemployment numbers stagnate. Hell even if people start to work again the chances of people finding a job that paid the same as the one they had before is pretty nill. That being said 70% of the US economy is consumption based. What about all the underemployed right now? Just because the employment numbers are going up or down doesn't mean the greater overall economy is going to get better or most importantly people will have more disposable income. 2010 is going to be worse than 09. I can see it already.

how many people are on ruduced salary/reduced hours? I know there is a lot of pressure on business to keep people employed even at lower rates.

I know a number of corporates that will do everything to hide making redundancies, even shift to compromise agreements to keep the numbers as low as possible since they don't want to be viewed as doing badly..

What has shocked me the most (I know enough senior HR people to know this is true) that a lot of coporates are losing their top performers, not to other busiensses but becuase they can not cope with the stress of carrying 2 or 3 peoples workloads... they would rather survive without a job then carry on as they are.. this aspect along with compromise agreements are keeping the true figures low.

Can you imagine, people are quitting their jobs without other jobs to go to in this climate! but people are.. and they are lieing about it.. I know a number who still pretend to be working for x coporate when they are no while job hunting and the coporates are helping cover that up, that is how messed up the situation really is.

it is all smoke and mirrors..

[edit on 10/1/10 by thoughtsfull]