Gallup: Unemployment at 9.1%, But 19% Need Jobs

Newsmax ^ | Thursday, 08 Mar 2012 02:19 PM | Martin Gould

[xzins]

The unemployment rate shot up by half a percentage point in February, according to figures released by the polling organization Gallup on Thursday.

The jump from 8.6 percent in January to 9.1 percent last month is the largest month-by-month increase in more than a year, Gallup said. It is the highest rate since August.

Gallup’s figures differ from the official government unemployment rate because they do not adjust the figure for seasonal variations or include anyone under 18. ...snip

“If the government's unadjusted unemployment rate increases to the degree that Gallup's has from mid-month to mid-month, then the government's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate could show an even larger increase,” Jacobe said.

He predicted the government figure for February would stand at either 8.5 or 8.6 percent.

...According to the organization, the underemployment rate – which includes part-time workers who want to be in full-time employment, rose from 18.7 percent to 19.1 percent in February, the highest since last May.

“Regardless of what the government reports, Gallup's unemployment and underemployment measures show a substantial deterioration since mid-January,” added Jacobe. “In this context, the increase in unemployment as measured by Gallup may, at least partly, reflect growth in the workforce, as more Americans who had given up looking for work become slightly more optimistic and start looking for work again.

“So while there may be positive signs, the reality Gallup finds is that more Americans are looking for work now than were doing so just six weeks ago. Official Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment figures have shown the rate go down from 9 percent since September.

[CougarGA7]

Yes. According to the U.S. Census, unemployment was 9.66% in 1941. This makes sense being that we were ramping up industrial output in support of Lend-Lease. When you look at the unemployment numbers from the start of FDR’s presidency you clan acually see the flaws in the New Deal that liberals lament for even today.

At first unemployment went down some until the end of 1937, then the economy began to tank again and unemployment took a sharp rise. It is only with the begining of industrialized efforts to support the European war effort that these numbers started to trend back down again.

[ponygirl]

The true number is around 23%: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

[Post Toasties]

Unemployment during the 30’s after 1933 varied between 15% and 25% for the most part.

[ak267]

Isn’t there a base number of jobs that need to be created each month just to keep even (population plus those graduating school and entering market)?

I’d thought I heard somewhere that it needs to be 250k per month???

[CougarGA7]

Yep. It had dipped to 14.18 by 37 only to shoot up to 18.91 the next year. You see a trend down in 39, 40, and 41, (17.05, 14.45, and 9.66) but this was more due to production increases as we began exporting to nations preparing for and finally fighting the Nazis. It wasn’t a New Deal program that started this trend. Also, these are U.S. Census statistics that show the U3 number like what gets reported today. This leaves out people who have stopped looking for jobs or have exausted all unemployment benefits. The U6 number which does look at these are much higher.

In the case of FDR, it was at its peak in 1933 when he took office (same year the U3 was over 25) and was around 37%. The trend showing that the New Deal was starting to collapse (1937-1938) has the U6 increasing from about 21% to 28%. Pretty big shift for a single year in peacetime.