Posted on 03/31/2011 5:58:43 AM PDT by Reaganite Republican
“Romer said, calling the 8.9% unemployment rate “an absolute crisis.””
I wonder what she calls the real unemployment rate?
How about hands off my economy? How about end the welfare state?
Like 17-18%, would you say?
Lot of people stopped looking a long time ago
So blaming Bush is no longer an effective excuse?
Most of the people I know 50 and up - if they lose their job they simply don’t think they’ll ever work again.
One woman I know is working two part time fast food jobs. She used to be an office manager. But she’s older, and after two + years she just gave up.
I couldn’t agree more, I argued with Dems back in ‘08 that where saying “gotta do SOMEthing” that in fact nothing would be better... a free market would have purged the bad by now and well on it’s way to recovery.
But Obama’s spending put an end to that- that and reckless policy like ObamaCare that scared the living bejeezus out of every job creator in the country
I did some research recently trying to ascertain what the current size of the workforce is. In the end, I used 156M. I was looking at how remarkably few individual taxpayers pay the bills. ~7.8M individuals pay 60% of the taxes!
Along the way I also learned that the current U3 unemployment rate is calculated using a "workforce" figure derived as "the number of people who have actively looked for work in the last 4 weeks." If the U3 unemployment was calculated as it was in 1992, today's unemployment would exceed 20%.
These numbers are so obfuscated and massaged, it is hard to find numbers you can have confidence in.
“And while some of the “action” Romer proposes -more spending and $ printing- is surely not the answer”
This woman is a tool. Typical Obama appointee. The criticism from these losers is never that he is too liberal but that he needs to do more harm.
That sentence hits home. Mr Bearshouse has been laid off, and at 60 and already wearing a pace maker, what are the chances of ever working again? I know at least 2 others in the same boat, too old to start over and too young to draw SS. So the true unemployment numbers are much higher than being reported.
Folks, patronize your local business people. Lots of bigger places like department stores are corporations owned by foreign interests. Don't buy anything with "China" marked on the bottom. Eat at your local family restaurant. You get my drift.
We're all in this together.
The definitions have not changed...the U-3 is calculated the same way and with the same definitions as the old U-5 (which was the official rate until 1994 when it was renamed U-3). The only change in the definition in 1994 was in regards to people waiting to start a new job.
And don’t quote shadowstats...he’s lying.
References?
Easy peasy: Employment and Earnings February 1992 (http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/employment/1992/download/95411/emp_021992.pdf) page 223: “Employed persons are (a) all civilians who, during the survey week, did any work at all as paid employees, in their own business, profession, or on their own farm, or who worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family; and (b) all those who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of illness, bad weather, vacation, labor-management disputes, or personal reasons, whether they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs....
Unemployed persons are all civilians who had no employment during the survey week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment some time during the prior 4 weeks. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off or were waiting to report to a new job within 30 days need not be looking for work to be classified as unemployed....
The civilian labor force comprises all civilians classified as employed or unemployed in accordance with the criteria described above...
The civilian worker unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force. “
There is also references to the Armed Forces and “total labor force” but the Armed Forces were dropped out of the survey in the 1994 redesign because they artificially lowered the rate and no one cared about the rate including them.
And Employment and Earnings Feb 2011 (http://www.bls.gov/opub/ee/empearn201102.pdf) page 183: “Employed persons. All persons who, during the reference week, (a) did any work at all (at least 1 hour) as paid employees, worked in their own business, profession, or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family, and (b) all those who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor-management dispute, job training, or other family
or personal reasons, whether or not they were paid for the
time off or were seeking other jobs....
Unemployed persons. All persons who had no employment
during the reference week, were available for work, except
for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find
employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with
the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled
to a job from which they had been laid off need not have
been looking for work to be classified as unemployed....
Labor force. This group comprises all persons classified as
employed or unemployed in accordance with the criteria
described above.
Unemployment rate. The unemployment rate represents the
number unemployed as a percent of the labor force.”
So where are these massive changes in definition you’re claiming? The differences are minor. The definition for Discouraged workers change significantly, but they weren’t part of the UE rate calculations anyway.
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