Unemployment rate rises higher to 8.3%, who gets the blame this time?

[Longhornfan1234]

?

[dbroncos78087]

Everyone and no one. The economy is all of us and we are not buying at the rate we need to in order to sustain the economy. We are a snake eating our own tail in the sense that we are hesitant to purchase because of the state of the economy all while the economy is in the state it's in because people aren't buying things.

We also have a debt based economy, and I don't just mean the government. Our people have built their businesses and personal life based on debt and paying it off in the future. People are realizing the downfall of this structure now and are reprioritizing in order to pay their debt and not push it off. Debt payment takes away from consumption.

To build up on the first two points, we suffered a massive destruction of wealth value. People put their money into homes and other assets that they were assured would never lose their value. Surprise, surprise...they lost the value that they "never would".

[GGGGG-Men]

I blame Kim Kardashian for this one.

[flips333]

I blame the 169,000 jobs created this month making people come out and look for a job again.

[gcoll]

The ****ed up way we measure unemployment is to blame.

[Mudvayneowns91]

I blame Kim Kardashian for this one.

I give my vote to this.

[corralski]

Everyone and no one. The economy is all of us and we are not buying at the rate we need to in order to sustain the economy. We are a snake eating our own tail in the sense that we are hesitant to purchase because of the state of the economy all while the economy is in the state it's in because people aren't buying things.

We also have a debt based economy, and I don't just mean the government. Our people have built their businesses and personal life based on debt and paying it off in the future. People are realizing the downfall of this structure now and are reprioritizing in order to pay their debt and not push it off. Debt payment takes away from consumption.

To build up on the first two points, we suffered a massive destruction of wealth value. People put their money into homes and other assets that they were assured would never lose their value. Surprise, surprise...they lost the value that they "never would".

That may be the absolute smartest thing I've read from you. One thing that I have taken away from the downturn is that there is a lot that I can do without and other than not having a bunch of unsecured debt, things are not one iota different......

[dbroncos78087]

That may be the absolute smartest thing I've read from you. One thing that I have taken away from the downturn is that there is a lot that I can do without and other than not having a bunch of unsecured debt, things are not one iota different......

Unfortunately for many marginal employees, businesses also realized that they didn't need all the employees they had on staff. It may increase productivity but it also hurts the economy because those people are now without paycheck and become a drain on the unemployment system while they find new employment at a lower rate.

[corralski]

Unfortunately for many marginal employees, businesses also realized that they didn't need all the employees they had on staff. It may increase productivity but it also hurts the economy because those people are now without paycheck and become a drain on the unemployment system while they find new employment at a lower rate.

Downturns in the economy are always the opportunity to trim the dead wood as it were, it's a shame in some ways but if all of the employees were equally valuable it wouldn't be as much of an opportunity.

It would be more encouraging though if I saw some of those dead wood guys reevaluate their work habits and turn themselves around.

The flip side is if the economy were humming there would be greater chance for those guys to turn themselves around and get another shot, instead maybe we're being the enablers to their increased dependence on assistance.....

[grandsalami]

dont forget a large chunk of that percentage are people who have been searching for a jobs for months/years and some who are like "**** it i give up looking for a job"

[corralski]

dont forget a large chunk of that percentage are people who have been searching for a jobs for months/years and some who are like "**** it i give up looking for a job"

I have a personal friend that is in that situation, he is a heavy truck mechanic to be specific. He's at an awkward age in that he gets passed over in favor of younger prospects, it's a physically intensive job at times. There is truth in what you say.

So how do we transition these people into another occupation?

Or do we back off on some of the ideologies that are driving this transition and allow these older technologies to flourish again?

In our effort to change a lot of things we are getting ahead of ourselves and the very middle class people that we are supposedly trying to help are ending up as casualties.....

[jej]

The ****ed up way we measure unemployment is to blame.

How exactly do we measure it?

[gcoll]

How exactly do we measure it?

We only count people who are looking for work. I forget the exact definitions for what counts as actually looking for work. But, that's the basic idea.

Essentially, your economy can get worse, and unemployment will go down as more people become dejected and simply stop looking for jobs.

And the economy can get a bit better, and those people will start looking again, and your unemployment rate will go up.

[flips333]

We only count people who are looking for work. I forget the exact definitions for what counts as actually looking for work. But, that's the basic idea.

Essentially, your economy can get worse, and unemployment will go down as more people become dejected and simply stop looking for jobs.

And the economy can get a bit better, and those people will start looking again, and your unemployment rate will go up.

Add that to the fact that growth in the economy preceedes job growth by quite a bit, and job losses (such as the ones impacting the most recent reports are coming from the government) can be private or public and those have distinctly diferent meanings for the economy.

[behindmydesk]

Still going with Greenspan myself.

My dislike of that man knows no bounds.