Household Survey Data Shows Real Unemployment At 17%

by Joel Hendon⁽¹⁷⁸⁾ Red Star

http://hebronics.org/index.html

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, September’s unemployment rate climbed from 9.7% in August, to 9.8% in September. But bear in mind that this is calculated simply by the number of the work force who are drawing unemployment compensation. There are many more who are out of work. Household Survey data gives an entirely different picture. There are some whose unemployment benefits have been exhausted. There are still more who have simply given up looking for work and thus become ineligible for those benefits. Plus there are many who have lost good paying jobs and have had to take part time work, or low paying employment. None of those are considered unemployed. Actually the number of unemployed is growing rapidly.

Listen to these disturbing numbers. In July of this year, 155,000 lost their jobs. In August, 392,000 lost their jobs. That amounts to well over half a million jobs in those two months alone. Then in September the number jumped to 785,000 losses! Over three quarters of a million jobs in September alone. And yet spokesmen for the administration, such as vice president, says the recession is bottomed out and looking better.

It is a well known fact that those people whose unemployment benefits are about to expire, will take anything they can find, part time, low wages, anything. And even though they are anything but satisfied or once again earning a decent income, they become officially counted as employed. There have been 3.2 million jobs lost since this administration took office in January.

All of those numbers look bad but the real kicker is the number of people whose unemployment benefits are running out. What happens to them then? Listen to these numbers and it can be very frightening: In July, 102,670 laid off workers saw their unemployment benefits run out. That is a lot of people to suddenly be without any income. Now, in August, 141,538 cases ran out of benefits, but worst of all, the number jumped to a whopping 486,049 in September. September was a disastrous month with 785,000 losing their jobs plus 486,049 whose benefits terminated.

That is not the end of the story however, Those numbers whose benefits are running out are in line to grow rapidly and with 1.5 million scheduled to expire in December. Families cannot exist when their resources are completely ended. All this is occurring while the administration is rapidly pressing to pass legislation which will cause even more unemployment. The only thing which is going to bring any positive action is public pressure on our legislators and the executive branch.

The unemployment statistics are not unrelated to other bad news. Every person who is laid off from his job is so from some cause. And that cause is less spending by the public causing less work to be needed and available. It is only common sense, If the unemployed with no further benefits grows some 2+ million between now and the end of the year, how much less will the public be spending by then? It is as they say, a vicious cycle. The more that are out of work and out of income, the lower spending will go and the lower governmental receipts will fall because of less taxes. And if they dare raise taxes, the bottom will fall out. There is no time to waste, no time for trips to speak before the Olympic Committee. The time has come for our government to act.

Article submitted Tuesday, October 06, 2009 & read 475 times.

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» left by Marijo Phelps from mountain meadow CO (2 years 128 days ago.)

I had hears thig before and that in the summer they stopped figuring out those who had no longer qualified for unemployment (time up) and had even given up on finding work. That figure was supposed to be closer to 20% several months back. Thanks, Joel! Marijo

» left by Joel Hendon⁽¹⁷⁸⁾ (2 years 128 days ago.)

Thanks Marijo;

Thanks for reading and commenting. It is hard to tell just exactly what the figures should be. I just recieved an article from Washington Times saying the figure for September for those signing up for unemployment was only about 550,000.. less than the figure I show above, but still about twice as much as August. I'm swiftly becoming more and more pessimistic.

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