Unemployment at 26 Year High

[rhymnrzn]

To those favouring management and hierarchy, and other practices of authority over others: All that stuff is not full-proof, as we can see a fair number of breaches of trust and corruption (waxing astronomical, here lately), and other occasions and fallouts as a result of loopholes in many cases, many of whom went through all these rigorous hiring procedures.  However, more necessary to life than food, clothes, and jobs, is whether the people keep the words of Christ, wisely building their house upon a rock; or whether they sin against the common good, and do not do unto others as they would have done unto themselves, so building large foundations upon unstable sands.   

I guess if this were Little House on the Prairie, I'd like the concept of hiring "on the spot." 

But in the big city, this very same concept of "straight dealing" can morph into ...... "it's not what you know, it's who you know"... aka "cronyism" or "crony capitalism"....

If it's down to one extreme or the other, get ready: a house divided will not stand through this storm.  Who desires for the people and nation to come this far only to flop? rather, every one nourishes and cherishes their own flesh.  The selfish ones will abide alone: but if the corn of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it will bear chance of grain, and yield much much more.  If one of these fruitful trees were to leave off cheering the hearts of God and men, in order to rise to prominence, what am I?  but a thorn-bearing bramble bush among the near un-moveable cedars threatens to command your actions.  I know God can bring a man up out of a dunghill to be present on high, and he can take a man down as if he was lopping a bough.  Yet if these hardened cedars continue to prop up the bramble and trust in its shadow, surely a fire will come out of it and burn the down all the cedars.

Rhymnrzn, sounds like you have a collection of those dreaded "postcards of rejection."  The job market in Tulsa is not nearly as bad as it is in other cities, and unemployment isn't nearly as bad as it was in the "Great Depression"....

Job hunting is like fishing...... you find the right bait (your resume)...... you get a few nibbles, you get a bite....... and you reel in the catch by communicating to your employer what makes you tick, and why this job will be personally satisfying to you, which will, in turn, convince them to hire you.

Now, if overqualified people with college degrees and decades of work in high profile industries were stuck applying for call center work rather than be forced to relocate (like former Eastman-Kodak employees in Rochester, NY), then I'd be concerned about the job market.

Until then, although I feel bad for people in this economy..... most of those people aren't Tulsans.

There's alot of well-to-do types all over this nation and the world, proud, full of bread, with idleness of hands, and busybodies who shoot the lip: but there is no strengthening of the needy, which would prolong tranquility for everybody.  Here we are, all of us benefactors of the labours of former generations, and benefactors off of the labours of the poor the world over: but some will act like they did all these great things by their own greatness.  I am content to be least among you, and much more intentionally I reject bribes or dishonest gains.  If for that I be "rejected", yet, why do I find myself in good campany?  I don't wish anyone to be in bad relations either, or for them to begin to lodge their trust in just any brother, or guide, for that matter.

Now we watch as these false ministers turn aside to consecrate their gains, take delight in their scant measures (none of them can redeem their brothers), and seek favor while they blow a trumpet to proclaim and publish the free offerings, all recieved by people that cannot discern between the reasonable green time of rest and healing, and the year of visitation and recompense! 

[guido911]

Sixteen states' unemployment rate over 10%:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99G8T580&show_article=1

Dude, where's my green shoots? I think some dog just took a huge dump on them.

[USRufnex]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99G8T580&show_article=1
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Labor Department says unemployment topped 10 percent in 16 states last month. The rate in Michigan surpassed 15 percent, the first time any state hit that mark since 1984.

Home to the nation's struggling auto makers, Michigan has been clobbered by lost factory jobs. Its jobless rate of 15.2 percent in June was the highest in the country, but the record-high for the state was 16.9 percent in November 1982.

Thanks for proving my point.

Jan. 20, 1981
Reagan is sworn in as the 40th president of the United States.

April 28, 1981
Reagan appears before Congress for the first time since the assassination attempt. He receives a hero's welcome and overwhelming support for his economic package, which includes cuts in social programs and taxes, and increases in defense spending.

July 29, 1981
Congress passes Reagan's tax bill. Instead of a 30% tax cut over three years, Reagan accepts 25%.

Oct. 18, 1981
Reagan concedes that the United States is in "a slight recession" but predicts recovery by the spring.

Nov. 10, 1981
Budget Director David Stockman charges that the 5% economic growth rate that the administration had assumed was a "rosy scenario," and pans "supply side" economics as a way to benefit the rich.

Fall 1982
The nation sinks into its worst recession since the Great Depression. Reagan fears budget deficits as high as $200 billion. On Nov. 1, more than 9 million Americans are officially unemployed.

June 2009 Unemployment figures...

[USRufnex]

One more thing you won't hear from the Freepers......

Monday, Mar. 08, 1976
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879612-3,00.html

Reagan estimated his earnings last year at $282,253, chiefly from speeches, newspaper columns and radio commentaries. The statement listed $200,000 in bonds, divided equally between California school-building securities and San Jose city notes, and $326,560 in stocks, at market value. Among them were investments in two bank holding companies, $132,000 in Continental Illinois Corp. of Chicago and $111,000 in First Union, Inc. of St. Louis, and $42,432 in Salant Corp., a New York-based clothing manufacturer.

8 years later........... the Reagan Administration rescued a bank deemed "too big to fail"...... guess which one.....?

Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Illinois_National_Bank_and_Trust_Company

The Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company was at one time the seventh-largest bank in the United States as measured by deposits. In May 1984, the bank became insolvent due, in part, to bad loans purchased from the failed Penn Square Bank N.A. of Oklahoma—loans for oil producers and service companies and investors in the Oklahoma and Texas oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continental Illinois was renamed Continental Bank. It continued to exist, with 80% of its shares owned by the federal government, until Bank of America acquired it in 1994 to broaden its midwestern presence.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

January 2009

Bank of America bail-out agreed
Bank of America will receive $20bn (£13.4bn) in fresh US government aid and $118bn worth of guarantees against bad assets.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7832484.stm

And so it goes..........

[FOTD]

  It is worthwhile to note that the US population, in general, is the most armed society on the planet. FOTD reckons there's going to be a lot of p!!sed off people with weapons who will do anything to survive. Pity the rich bankers and those who stand in their way.

A rising tide of social misery
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/econ-j16.shtml

By David Walsh
16 July 2009
"Contrary to Obama administration and media claims about the recession "easing," millions of working people in America are losing their jobs, earnings and health care benefits at an accelerating pace.
While executives at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other financial giants prepare to pay themselves billions of dollars this year in salaries and bonuses, life has continued to become more and more difficult for a broad layer of the population.
The New York Times pointed out on Wednesday that in California and a number of other states, "one out of every five people who would like to be working full time is not now doing so."
The official jobless rate of 9.5 percent excludes both those who have stopped looking for jobs because local conditions are so bleak and those obliged to accept part-time employment.
If these unemployed and underemployed were included, the real jobless rate in the country's most populous state, California, for example, would be 20.3 percent, according to the Times. In Oregon it would be 23.5 percent, in Michigan and Rhode Island, 21.5 percent, and in South Carolina, 20.5 percent. The figure would be just below 20 percent in Tennessee, Nevada and a number of "states that have relied heavily on manufacturing and housing."
Given that the Bureau of Labor Statistics' national jobless rate is skewed, for political reasons, to minimize the actual conditions, various analysts step in and attempt to come up with a "real unemployment" number.
The Center for Labor Market Studies at Boston's Northeastern University places the current jobless rate at 18.2 percent, higher than the official figure on the eve of World War II. John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics puts the "Alternative Unemployment" rate at 20.6 percent. Other analysts calculate an "Effective Unemployment" figure of 18.7 percent. Whatever the precise number, the army of unemployed is large and swelling. A great many lives have already been devastated.
David Rosenberg, chief economist at the investment firm Gluskin Sheff in Toronto and former chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch, argues: "The official ranks of the unemployed have doubled during this recession to 14 million and if you take into account all forms of labour market slack, the unofficial number is bordering on 30 million, another record."
The figures on job losses in the current slump are staggering. Since the start of the recession in December 2007 the US economy has lost a total of 6.5 million jobs. In fact, the economy presently has fewer jobs than it did in May 2000. The Economic Policy Institute points out that "the entire growth in jobs over the last nine years has been wiped out," while the labor force has actually expanded by 12.5 million workers.
According to economist Rosenberg, "We have lost a record 9 million full-time jobs this [business] cycle, more than triple what is normal in the context of a post-WWII recession, with over 2 million pushed onto part-time work." He notes that three-quarters of those laid off over the past year were let go on a permanent, not a temporary basis, and that a record 53 percent of those currently out of work were displaced for good.
Rosenberg estimates that more than four million jobs in financial services, residential construction, durable goods manufacturing, wholesale-retail and leisure-hospitality "are not going to come back." The destruction of millions of better-paying, full-time jobs has enormous implications for the living standards of working families.
Job openings in the US have dropped by 42 percent since the end of 2007, so that in June 2009 there were some six unemployed looking for every job. As a result, the percentage of the jobless out of work for more than six months increased by nearly 70 percent from June 2008 to June 2009 (17.1 to 29 percent).
Since employers, who can afford to pick and choose, are generally taking experience over youth, and workers over 55 are holding on to their jobs for dear life, the official unemployment rate for young people has jumped to 15.2 percent for 20-24 year olds (a 49 percent increase in 12 months!) and 24 percent for 16-19 year olds. For African-Americans 16 to 19, the jobless rate is currently 38 percent.
As serious as they are, the jobless figures are only part of the story. Public and private employers across the country are taking advantage of the recession to cut wages, hours (through "unpaid leave," "furloughs" and other means) and benefits, impoverishing many of those still employed.
The average work week fell to 33 hours in June, the lowest since data was collected in 1964, and 48 minutes shorter than when the recession began. The combined decline in jobs and hours in June was the equivalent of a loss of some 800,000 jobs.
Business Week notes that "Cuts in pay and hours are rippling throughout the economy in businesses large and small and industries from mining to retail." A survey commissioned by the Economist in June found 5 percent of respondents had already taken a furlough in 2009 and 13 percent had taken a pay cut.
Mortimer Zuckerman in the July 14 Wall Street Journal commented: "Full-time workers are being downgraded to part time as businesses slash labor costs to remain above water, and factories are operating at only 65% of capacity." Average weekly earnings fell to $611.49 in June, from $613.34 in May.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday that real average weekly earnings fell by 1.2 percent from May to June after seasonal adjustment. The drop resulted from a 0.3 percent decrease in average weekly hours and a 0.9 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index, driven by a sharp jump in gasoline prices.
Also on Wednesday, reports showed that industrial production declined in the US, for the eighth straight month. The industrial sector operated at 68 percent of its capacity in June, down from 68.2 percent in May, a new low in the 42 years since the data have been collected.
Meanwhile, eleven of the 17 Federal Reserve governors and regional bank presidents are predicting that unemployment will be 10 percent or higher in the final three months of 2009, and they expect the downturn, according to the Washington Post, "to be long-lasting."
American workers are not only losing jobs and homes, they are also losing health care "at an alarming rate," says a new report from Families USA. While the latest data from the Census Bureau indicated that 45.7 million Americans lacked health coverage in 2007, "economists believe the situation has only worsened in the intervening months as the economic downturn has taken its toll." Experts predict an additional 6.9 million people in the US—a 15 percent increase—will lose their health coverage by the end of 2010.
Behind this health care disaster are the combined effects of rising costs, businesses slashing or eliminating coverage, and unemployment.
Noting that the rapid increase in joblessness means that the various states will probably "experience even greater losses ... than can be captured by our Key Findings," Families USA estimates that between January 2008 and December 2010, 995,200 people in California, for example, will lose health coverage—or 6,380 per week. In Texas, which has the highest percentage of uninsured, some 866,000 residents will lose coverage by the end of next year.
In Florida, more than 3,500 people a week are losing coverage; in New York, nearly 2,500 people; in both Illinois and Georgia some 1,600 people; in New Jersey, 1,200, and in Michigan, a little more than 1,000 people each week.
In the US as a whole, the group estimates that 44,000 people are losing their health care every week.
On July 7 the American Bankers Association reported delinquencies on consumer debt rose to record levels, as customers had difficulty paying for everything from credit cards to automobiles. The percentage of borrowers at least 30 days late paying a balance is the highest since the association began keeping records in 1974.
ABA Chief Economist James Chessen stated bluntly, "The number one driver of delinquencies is job loss. When people lose their jobs, they can't pay their bills. Delinquencies won't improve until companies start hiring again."
Public outrage at the present situation is growing. It is not uncommon to hear the rich, the "filthy" bankers, being denounced in work places and neighborhoods. Many workers—abandoned by the unions to their fate, lied to and cheated by the Democrats—have been stunned by the rapidity of the crisis. The Economist, a little nervously, refers to "The quiet Americans," who are "proving stoical in the face of pay cuts and compulsory unpaid leave." Later the magazine adds, "for the moment."
Whatever the initial problems and hesitations of the population, the raging economic crisis will destabilize American political and social life, and radicalize vast numbers of people. It is inevitably creating the conditions for a showdown between working people, the vast majority, and the corporate aristocracy. Building an independent political movement of the working class based on a socialist and internationalist program to offer a progressive way out of the crisis is the most pressing task. "

[guido911]

FOTD and soccerboy have gone from spooning to shrimping Obama. He ASSURED us that if we passed stimulus, er stabilization, that unemployment would not get passed 8%. We are at 9.5% with stabilization and nearly $1T in spending. Obama LIED us into debt that those yet born will have to pay and you want to talk about Reagan.  Help me, did Reagan and the democrat controlled congress he was dealing with spend $1T to get us out of the malaise from the late 1970s?

[FOTD]

FOTD and soccerboy have gone from spooning to shrimping Obama. He ASSURED us that if we passed stimulus, er stabilization, that unemployment would not get passed 8%. We are at 9.5% with stabilization and nearly $1T in spending. Obama LIED us into debt that those yet born will have to pay and you want to talk about Reagan.  Help me, did Reagan and the democrat controlled congress he was dealing with spend $1T to get us out of the malaise from the late 1970s?

Right! Far Right!
Guido the whackobama man.

[waterboy]

Aw...that malaise of the 70's. If we could only get it back! Good times for me and mine. Good jobs, clean, prosperous city and cool Corvette. Sorry you missed out on all that.

[FOTD]

All motion is relevant.

The economy is a 50 trillion dollar economy today.

But the unemployed is disproportionate to the increase in value.

Trickle down voodoo.

[Conan71]

One more thing you won't hear from the Freepers......

Monday, Mar. 08, 1976
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879612-3,00.html

Reagan estimated his earnings last year at $282,253, chiefly from speeches, newspaper columns and radio commentaries. The statement listed $200,000 in bonds, divided equally between California school-building securities and San Jose city notes, and $326,560 in stocks, at market value. Among them were investments in two bank holding companies, $132,000 in Continental Illinois Corp. of Chicago and $111,000 in First Union, Inc. of St. Louis, and $42,432 in Salant Corp., a New York-based clothing manufacturer.

8 years later........... the Reagan Administration rescued a bank deemed "too big to fail"...... guess which one.....?

Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Illinois_National_Bank_and_Trust_Company

The Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company was at one time the seventh-largest bank in the United States as measured by deposits. In May 1984, the bank became insolvent due, in part, to bad loans purchased from the failed Penn Square Bank N.A. of Oklahoma—loans for oil producers and service companies and investors in the Oklahoma and Texas oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continental Illinois was renamed Continental Bank. It continued to exist, with 80% of its shares owned by the federal government, until Bank of America acquired it in 1994 to broaden its midwestern presence.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

January 2009

Bank of America bail-out agreed
Bank of America will receive $20bn (£13.4bn) in fresh US government aid and $118bn worth of guarantees against bad assets.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7832484.stm

And so it goes..........

Continental, as with many other banks and S&L's, were bailed out in the or parcelled out in the 1980's to other institutions by the FDIC and FSLIC.  If your implication is that Reagan saved his own investment, shareholders in Continental were substantially wiped out in the FDIC rescue.  Obviously buying the assets of failed banks proved too risky in this instance.  I'm still not sure why the gov't hasn't figured out that major bank consolidations are a bad thing.  If a local or smaller regional bank goes under it's not such a disaster.  But if a bank which consists of a bunch of former local and small regional systems fails, that's a major cataclysm.

[FOTD]

French TV: Goldman Sachs are scum

NPR did a report today saying that in 2008, a year ago, only %40 approved of America. In one year, last month, America was being accepted by %80 of France.

Anyway, unemployment will go much higher due to the banksters.

[cannon_fodder]

With the ouster of Bush pretty much all the countries have returned to 2000 levels of "favorability" on the USA.  Britain remains down a little bit, Kenya and Indonesia are way up.  But pretty much the status quo.

Which is true for the Middle East also.  Ratings have not improved.  To my surprise, Turkey and Pakistan hate the United States as much as Palestinians do.  Which is odd.  Also, why does Argentina dislike the USA so much?