Unemployment rate down to 9.0%

The unemployment rate has gone down to 9.0%. After a year of gridlock in congress we are finally seeing the fruits of the inability of politicians to continue to screw everything up for all of us. The less government does the more the private sector can do.

This is after numbers show that government jobs are on the decline. 80,000 non-farm jobs were created and long term unemployment numbers have also gone down. We will still need roughly 200,000 jobs every month to decrease the unemployment rate in appreciable ways. But I think, all in all, that these numbers are good news.

Here's hoping for the best.

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. "If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking -- so-called discouraged workers -- and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.

www.breitbart.com...

And usually the Labor Department's statistics don't include the underemployed and those who have stopped looking for work. This alternative measure creates a much higher number.

reply to post by projectvxn


I'm eager to hear good news about the economy and (un)employment. These numbers look good on the surface, but you have to remember that the labor base (people that are able and willing to work) is losing numbers every month. That's why it's a "jobless" recovery, and why the percentage of "unemployed" is shrinking.

i have a question: this unemployment rate...is that the number of americans on unemployment or is that the number of americans out of work, cuz there is a difference.

reply to post by Heros_son


Indeed. That's why I mentioned that we will still need 200,000 jobs created in the private sector every month for at least the next two years or so in order to bring down the unemployment rate to an acceptable level.

I hope you are correct. I just have little faith recently in the numbers produced by the Government, when it comes to news that is about the economy. The wall street clan are doing well. But thats another issue. (9%) I guess it's better than 9.1 % but it still is bad. s/f thx op

reply to post by CherubBaby


I'm just trying to be a little positive here.

Things have sucked for way too long now and I was rather excited to hear this news this morning.

I want America back to work and kicking economic ass again.

reply to post by xavi1000


This is true.

But these numbers have been getting revised upward and the outlook is actually getting better.

The U6 rate that you mentioned has actually gone down as well, though, like the overall unemployment number, not enough to stoke too much confidence, but enough to see a glimmer of hope in the distance.

And the Obama administration is taking credit for it in 5. . 4. .3. .2. .

Of course if the numbers had gone up then blame the GOP in 5. .

The rosey colored glasses crew would like everyone to believe that the number of people unemployed is shrinking.

Here's another view of it showing that including folks who have just plain old given up trying and are no longer collecting any kind of benefits, approximately 25 percent of the workforce is out of work.

Link to graph

Unless we all get honest with eachother relative to how good or bad things are, there will never be a consensus on what we need to do to make it better. With the government's golly gee, lookitsee . . . it's working . . . we're doing things for you . . . and there's an election coming up . . . yeah . . . we're gooder-izing everything disinformation machines cranked up at full pitch, you've got to dig a bit deeper more often than not to get the truth. And, you need to look at other indicators as well . . .

If the number of people relying on food stamps is at 45 million, that doesn't really jive with what the government is telling you, now does it.

reply to post by beezzer


I fully expect Obama to take credit for it.

But I see through the BS.

Obama and congress have not been able to pass any more stimulus bills or tax increases, and these numbers represent, to me, the fact that we just don't need the ruling class to make things better.

If we want the economy to be worse we'll call the White House and Congress and tell them to get back to work because there are people doing well and we just can't have that.

reply to post by GoalPoster


Optimism certainly isn't a trait typically found on ATS.

These numbers show a potentiality for improvement in the near future.

Which is being reflected in the numbers seen this morning:
www.shadowstats.com...

I believe the unemployment figures the government releases the same way I trust the Stock Market.

Not at all.

On the streets we're in a depression, about to go into the worst world wide economic depression in history, and they are steering the boat off the waterfall. That's the REAL conditions of the Unemployment situation.

Well it may have been 9% yesterday but not today, it's higher.

I just finished a contracting job and now I am currently unemployed again until I can acquire another one.

Originally posted by projectvxn
After a year of gridlock in congress we are finally seeing the fruits of the inability of politicians to continue to screw everything up for all of us.

That was exactly the point of our nation's governmental structure.

They essentially wanted gridlock, to pit all of the sides against each other in government so that they would waste all of their time fighting and never have a chance to accomplish anything which would screw everyone.

The MSM always complains this is a bad thing, that 'no one can agree on anything', as if having all of the corrupt officials unified would be beneficial somehow. It's a mind-twist, planted to make everyone think we should "want" a government that "gets things done".

What could possibly "get done"? Tyranny I tell you, tyranny. That's what would get done.

Indeed.

Folks, make no mistake, I understand the employment situation is crap. I've had my fair share of troubles since 2007.

But I believe we can make it out of this.

www.cnbc.com...

The U.S. jobs market remained stuck in neutral during October, with the economy creating just 80,000 new jobs as the stubbornly high unemployment rate nudged lower.

Amid few expectations that the employment picture has improved, government numbers Friday confirmed the obvious: The unemployment rate is stuck at 9.0 percent where it likely will be for many months to come.

Like I said in the OP, we will need at LEAST 200,000 jobs per month NET to see any real improvement in the employment situation in this country.

Even the Federal Reserve is as pessimistic as many here:

The report comes just days after the Federal Reserve delivered its own body blow, saying the unemployment rate will go no lower than 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent by the end of 2012 and will remain in the 6.8 percent to 7.7 percent through 2014.

The central bank considers full employment when the jobless rate falls to 5.2 percent to 6 percent, here it has not been since July 2008.

The article goes on to say the following:

"There is not enough demand to support more than the modest job growth seen in September and October. And therefore, look for more of the same late this year and into the winter," Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis at The Conference Board, said in reaction to the jobs report. "While it may be enough to barely escape recession, the gain in jobs and incomes is not enough to offset consumer pessimism."

The only way we're going to be able to off set this pessimism is if the revisions continue upward and the trend actually solidifies over the next few months. If it doesn't, and the contagion of EU origin infects the economy, then we have a serious problem. But for now, I am going to try to remain optimistic.

reply to post by projectvxn


Of course, people have been employed to clean up after "occupy" has been through.

Originally posted by xavi1000

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. "If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking -- so-called discouraged workers -- and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.

www.breitbart.com...

And usually the Labor Department's statistics don't include the underemployed and those who have stopped looking for work. This alternative measure creates a much higher number.

edit on 4-11-2011 by xavi1000 because: (no reason given)

Sure, but let's not be dishonest.

If you want to use the U6 unemployment number of 16%...then you need to use the pre-collapse U6 unemployment number of 10-12%.

To use a phrase loved by Herman Cain...you are trying to compare apples and oranges.

Ive heard the unemployment rate is based on something like, the amount of people who have lost their jobs over the past year or something like that, rather than the amount of people who are actually out of work.

reply to post by Kr0nZ


It's based on a lot of things.

Including payroll reporting which is about as close as you can get.

Those numbers all say a different thing to different people.