The United States lost another 247,000 jobs in July of 2009. Some economists are trying to use this job loss figure to paint a rosy picture for the economy. Analysts had expected 320,000 jobs to be lost. They are now trying to say the economy is turning around.
Even President Obama is trying to put a good face on the numbers. He said, "We are losing jobs at less than half the rate we were when I took office. We have pulled the financial system back from the brink. While we have rescued our economy from catastrophe, we have also begun to build a new foundation for growth."
The unemployment figure actually dropped from 9.5% to 9.4%. But don't let that false figure fool you. The "unemployment" percentage used by the federal government doesn't actually show the amount of people unemployed -- only the amount of people receiving unemployment benefits. So the "drop" in unemployment really just means that more people ran out of benefits than lost their jobs in July.
The 247,000 figure is the result of subtracting jobs created from jobs lost. There is no way that actual unemployment can go down when we have 247,000 fewer jobs than in the month before. The actual unemployment figure (those receiving unemployment benefits plus those whose benefits have run out is probably nearing or past 15%. And if you add in those who've accepted part-time work but need full-time, we are probably approaching Depression-era numbers.
At least President Obama hasn't lost touch with reality. He added, "[But] we have a lot further to go. As far as I'm concerned, we will not have a true recovery until we stop losing jobs." Finally we hear the truth. The economy has not turned around, and it will not be turned around until we create more jobs than we lose for a couple of months in a row.
Wall Street and corporate profits are not the markers to watch to see when the recession is ending. After all, a lot of rich people and corporate interests did pretty well during the Great Depression.
The jobless figures will tell us when the recession is over. And it looks like they still haven't found the bottom yet.
Without consumers, there's not going to be a consumer economy. Funny how the geniuses playing CEO forgot that when they were hamstringing the economy for personal gain.
ReplyDeletewww.shadowstats.com - actual unemployment over 20%.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gary. That doesn't surprise me at all.
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