redrumloa said:
Of course the numbers have the Obama/Bush propoganda spin on them, the reality is likely much worse.
I sure wish there was a catchy way of saying that - Obusha? Bushama? *sigh* it just doesn't work. ... maybe Obambush. I'm kind of liking that. The nation has been Obambushed!! Our jobs have been Obambushed!! Hmmm. Not bad.
The path Obama is taking us on will likely result in much, much higher levels of unemployment indefinately.
"is taking us on"? Continues would be a better word. More handouts for the rich - more trickle down thinking. Look -
pay raises count as created jobs!!
Sure, if you raise the pay for some middle classers then they will up their spending if they don't have huge debt loads and there may be a couple of extra bucks in the economy to hire some folks but what about just creating the jobs directly by hiring people to do the things that need to be done? Bush's tax cuts to the rich meant that perhaps there were more jobs as dog walkers or personal trainers but do we need more rich person sweat and walked dogs or do we need more overpasses that don't fall down?
With the giant government giveaways to bonus the thieving classes on Wall St., letting the Bush tax cuts lapse so the government can have some of that money back is the very least of what needs to be done - and then take away all the perverse incentives that let big business smother small business and offshore all the actual work or import cheap foreign labour.
So far eight years of Bush and a year of Obama have taken the unemployment rate as high as 3 years of Reagan did - and supply side trickle down deregulation strikes again.
And now:
Graph Time
Here are the numbers for initial claims and continuing claims.
Initial claims are almost as high as 83 but continuing claims are higher. However, the population now is about double 83
So, in numbers the claim rate is higher but in percent it's not.
However, duration of unemployment is increasing.
The labour participation rate has been falling since 2000.
