I don't know about you, but today's employment data makes me thankful to have a job. Now 1 person in 10 is out of work. In my anecdotal experience, things feel even worse. I see an increasing number of fathers doing drop off at kids' schools, something I didn't see a year ago. And there doesn't seem to be any change in the number of requests I'm getting for job contacts -- and not just for leads in my field.
One interesting fact I came across: If the 15.7 million unemployed lived in one state, that state would be the country's fifth largest. Wow!
But, even more distressing than today's jobs report is the outlook for employment. After the Q3 GDP report came out, hopes were high that the Great Recession was over, and recovery was finally underway.
Now economists say that the peak in the unemployment rate probably will be close to 10.5% and probably not until the middle of next year. Even worse -- the unemployment rate is expected to stay high for several more years.
So, it seems that the risk of a jobless recovery is rising. Let's hope this month's data is an aberration, not a harbinger of a deteriorating economy.
Comments
Robert, that movie was named "Blue Thunder". I like the reference to the movie "Wall Street", too. Hey, they should combine the two into a new movie where runaway financial fraud causes riots on Wall Street and a new joint police-military force is deployed to confront it.
That's a creepy suggestion, rounding up all the unemployed and forming a state-sized concentration camp. I remember Star Trek Deep Space Nine had an episode where they said exactly that had happened on Earth after the 20th century, and the people had to struggle for a long time to regain their freedom.
A jobless recovery is pretty well pointless - taking care of that huge number of unemployed people will just pull the economy back down unless you want to be barbaric and eliminate them. Is it possible that small sustainable local businesses could replace the lost jobs?
How can we recover?.. We dont make anything here... Slaves is china have taken all the jobs. They actually live in the big factories in china and pay rent for the privilege... Corporate America knows what is going on, why are they doing this to our people... our AMERICAN people.... I hope and pray that sanity will return to American business... to quote the film Wall Street, "how much is enough"
America is dying....
How in the hell can you have a jobless recovery ? Isn't that the ultimate oxymoron.. ?
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Please my sweet, answer my question.
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Please no offence, but, the US economy is near 60% consumer driven. And we consume products from China, with borrowed money... from China.
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How in bloody hell are we going to recover from that ? Borrow more money from China ?
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What if China won't lend us any more money ?
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Just in case nobody noticed, China ain't lending to us like they used to ! They are taking their US dollars, and investing them in commodities, and commodity rich real estate.
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This country is about to take a really big fall ! A fall, a fall like, Er aah... like military, and police on our streets ! I am not kidding ! I have a relative who works with FEMA, and she says they police and military are traing in joint efforts to put down riots in US streets !
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And you are talking about a jobless recovery ! There ain't gonna be no recovery !
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The only way we have out of this is jobs ! And the jobs went to China, and we ain't gonna print our way out of this one !
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