The New York Times, of all places, gets it right:
Persistence of Long-Term Unemployment Tests U.S.
The longer people stay out of work, the more trouble they have finding new work.
That is a fact of life that much of Europe, with its underclass of permanently idle workers, knows all too well. But it is a lesson that the United States seems to be just learning.
This country has some of the highest levels of long-term unemployment — or joblessness lasting more than six months — ever recorded. Meanwhile, job growth has been, and looks to remain, disappointingly slow, indicating that those out of work a while are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Even if the government report on Friday shows the expected improvement in hiring by business, it will not be enough to make a real dent in those totals.
As we now know, today’s unemployment numbers were up. This is a bad economy to lose your job in. The worst economy for that since they’ve started keeping record, including the Great Depression. I don’t know what to do about it. The Democrats want to extend unemployment benifits again. I don’t know about that. That encourages people to continue looking in their old profession, and if they’ve not succeeded at that in two years, they are unlikely to succeed at it in three more months. People have to change professions sometimes. I’ve been a dishwasher, restuarantcook, construction worker (welder), press-brake operator, draftsman, and day laborer in addition to being a software engineer in my long career. I hope to be a software engineer five years from now (with the same company, I hope), but I may have to change again before all is said and done. Some of these people need to look at retraining.
That said, I’m not sure what they should re-train to. The tech industry has lapsed back to modest (hopefully sustainable) levels of growth. The only sector of the economy that has really grown in the last two years is government. That is the only segment of the economy that has been getting substantial raises for longer than that. I don’t encourage anyone to go to work for the government. Too often (the military excepted) that is simply another way of joining the parasite class.
Update: Unemployment is now at the highest rate since April. We all know that if a Republican were President, the MFM would be calling this what it is: Great Depression II. No end is really in sight. The housing market is dust. Now, some people are predicting a stock market crash if the tax hike isn’t killed by the 15th of December. That seems unlikely (killing the tax hike, that is; the stock market crash seems all too likely). I have not seen any news I’d deem positive in a long time.
Rodan Update:
The Obama Boom continues to roar! The greatest economic growth since the 1990’s continues it’s unprecedented pace of job creation!
WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in November and the unemployment rate rose to its highest level since April, underlining the continued weakness in the labor market 17 months into the recovery.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 39,000 last month as private-sector employers added only 50,000 jobs, the Labor Department said Friday. The October number was revised up slightly to show a 172,000 increase from a previous estimate of 151,000.
The unemployment rate, which is obtained from a separate household survey, unexpectedly rose to 9.8% last month. More than 15 million people who would like to work can’t get a job.
Yeah borrowing money from China, devaluing the dollar and deficit spending sure is working! This report comes as no surprise for me. The media has been hyping any improvement in the economy as signs that things are great. The reality is that thanks to our antiquated tax policies, government spending, useless wars and debt, America is the sick man of the global economy. Until we engage in massive cuts to the government, restructure the tax code to encourage investment, stop being the world’s policeman and begin to pay off our debt we will be in this situation for many years. The truth is there are no engines of jobs in America anymore that pay well. Our IT industry is decimated and wages are low there, manufacturing is a skeleton of what it was and the only jobs created are retail minimum wage jobs. The American dream is dying, but maybe this was the goal of the Neo-Feudal elite all along!
Tags: Obama Boom, Unemployment
