According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate increased to 9.7% during August -- hitting the highest level since June 1983.
The report showed that employers cut a net total of 216,000 jobs. The number of jobs cut was less than July's 276,000 (which was upwardly revised) and was the lowest reading in a year. Economists expected job cuts to come in at 225,000. As for the unemployment rate, expectations called for 9.5%.
What is known as the underemployment rate, the number of laid-off workers settling for part-time or no work, totaled 16.8% -- the highest reading on records dating back as far as 1994. Currently, 14.9 million Americans are unemployed.
Let's not forget that President Obama and the Fed both expect the unemployment rate to reach 10%, does this mean we are nearing the worst? I'm not sure, as there were upward revisions to both June's and July's unemployment numbers. Reading these numbers, I am a bit concerned about how accurate they are. What if the August numbers are revised higher and then top expectations?
The bottom line is this: our economy is weak, and it is expected to get weaker. If you are heading into college and want to ensure that you are going to have a job upon graduation -- think health care. This was the only segment of the employment data that showed an increase.
It is going to take time for us to emerge from our current economic doldrums, but predictions sure make it look like we are near the bottom. Let's see what the next month has in store -- an unemployment rate of 10% is the magic number. If we hit 10% then rebound, all will be good in the world. If we hit 10% and keep plunging, we could see dogs and cats living together -- mass hysteria.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-04-2009 @ 2:37PM
ij70 said...
The thing is, everyone is thinking about career in health care :-)
By the time you graduate, there will be a glut of people who thought just like you! :)
Start thinking: something other then health care.
9-04-2009 @ 2:46PM
Tataca said...
"Let's not forget that President Obama and the Fed both expect the unemployment rate to reach 10%" ... did you forget he/Obama said 8% ... unless 'they' passed the bailout? But what's another 2% to people in government ... or the news media?
You people just can't get it straight when it comes to Obama, can you? Jeez!
9-05-2009 @ 2:21PM
bnfox1957 said...
And for so-called economic experts they sure miss the details: they speculate on 10% being the worst when there will be an avalanche of new layoffs after the upcoming holiday season tanks way more than most anticipate - not to mention massive defaults moving into prime mortgages, commercial real estate, credit cards, and student loans. The further huge drops in consumer spending will keep this vicious cycle up through 2010 and the next 10-20 years after that. 10% (which in reality is 20%) is only the beginning.....
9-06-2009 @ 6:17AM
al coholic said...
I can accept that the government figures on employment, like nearly any information complied by our beaurocracy have to be taken with a grain of salt, because they are often self serving. Hell we can't even reliably count the number of people in the US.
What bothers me the most is that we are trying to assess our economic situation by comparing today's figures to those in the past without considering that the criteria for data interpertation has so changed due to "tweaks" that they might just as easily have come from parallel universes.