June Unemployment News
[Guest post by DRJ]
Today’s economic news shows unemployment continues to rise, reaching 9.5% and a greater-than-expected 467,000 jobs lost in June:
“June’s payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected and average weekly earnings dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.
However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn’t as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.
All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.
If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.”
In addition, the “average work week in June fell to 33 hours, the lowest on records dating to 1964.” One silver lining is that newly laid-off workers filing applications for unemployment benefits “fell last week to 614,000, in line with economists’ predictions.” But employment experts also say some job-seekers take the summer off and return to the job market in the fall.
As always, Innocent Bystanders has much more, including the updated chart.
Barack Obama issued his standard response for every problem: He is “deeply concerned.”
— DRJ
I also saw a piece on one of the news channels today claiming that the ramp up for the census is hiding some of the true unemployement behind highly temporary jobs.
Soronel Haetir (506ccb) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:13 pmBut why be concerned? It’s funemployment!
More seriously, the difference in the way that the MSM treats economic news under GWB versus under Obama will not wash with voters.
Eric Blair (0b61b2) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:14 pmEric, I do believe the last election was the old press’s last chance to make much of a difference. Partly because the truly went off the rails in refusing to inform people about Obama.
Of course, the GOP is going to have to get their act together at some point if they are going to do something about this. I honestly think that’s a huge question mark.
Juan (5fa9e0) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:17 pmStandard Two Line Mantra:
Obama: “I’m deeply concerned.”
Me: “Deeply concerned my ass!”
Getting tired of having that two line mantra on constant loop–but so long as the New Messiah is in office, I’m doomed to repeat it.
Mike Myers (674050) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:23 pmAn industry website did a poll and show that the cap and trade thing could end up closing like 17+% of businesses. This is going to get MUCH worse.
http://www.mfrtech.com/articles/2293.html
It seems every single thing that Obama does is an attack on the employers of our country.
Romp (e8a65e) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:29 pmNo wonder the Obama Administration is confiscating guns. They want to stay alive after the unemployment rate goes above 20%.
PCD (02f8c1) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:31 pmCap and Trade hopefully won’t actually come to be. But yeah, if it does… we will look back on today’s economy with fondness and nostalgia.
Juan (5fa9e0) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:33 pmJuan, you are dead on correct: these are all elections for the Republicans to lose…
Eric Blair (0b61b2) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:35 pmThe Republicans, of course, are perfectly capable of losing them. A lot of this began with Hastert convincing Bush not to veto those spending bills so the Republicans could hold Congress forever. That worked out well, didn’t it ?
I am so sick of alleged Republicans falling in love with spending once they are elected to something. Believe me, it starts at the local level. I am far too crabby to be elected to the city council but people have been asking me to run for years, no doubt thinking that nothing could cause me to “grow in office.”
Mike K (2cf494) — 7/2/2009 @ 12:58 pmWith very few exceptions, they’re all whores, regardless of whether they have a (D) or an (R) after their name. And it’s not as if the next crop of candidates is any better; they’re whores on a local or state level looking to make the jump to whoring on a national level.
steve sturm (369bc6) — 7/2/2009 @ 1:07 pmI blame Bush. And, Kyoto.
JD (646114) — 7/2/2009 @ 1:12 pmComment by Mike K — 7/2/2009 @ 12:58 pm
“Growing” is OK, just don’t set down any roots.
AD - RtR/OS! (b9e569) — 7/2/2009 @ 1:13 pmThe higher the unemployment rate, the better the comments.
Official Internet Data Office (687ef5) — 7/2/2009 @ 1:42 pmConsidering the response to the gathering economic storm by his predecessor in February of 2008; the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression; the looming implosion of banks, Wall St., and collapse of auto industries and the housing market, I’m glad President Obama is ‘deeply concerned.’ Mr. Bush wasn’t.
Lest we forget:
Bush: Economy Not In Recession
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush on Tuesday said the economy was not in a recession and that he believed it would not fall into a downturn.
“We’re not in a recession, I don’t think we will go in a recession. We’re in a slowdown, and there’s a difference,” Bush said in an interview with American Urban Radio Networks.
Bush’s comments came on a day when economic reports showed U.S. consumer confidence slumped to its worst in five years, and home prices fell 8.9 percent last year.
“No question there’s softening now,” Bush said. But he added that he was confident in the resiliency of the economy.
Bush has signed into law a $152 billion package of tax rebates and business incentives aimed at warding off an election-year recession. – source Reuters, 2/26/08
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 7/2/2009 @ 1:43 pmGood Allah. Beyond parody.
JD (b86d0b) — 7/2/2009 @ 1:50 pmWhoops! JD, check this out:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/02/poll-obama-slipping-further-on-economy/
It’s about the latest Rasmussen poll. Here is the quote I like the best:
Get read for a troll-storm! Because Teh Narrative does not fit.
It’s Bush’s fault!
Sounds like people are coming back to Earth. Now people are hoping for change. But they seem to want a change from the current course, which is in the hands of Obama-Pelosi-Reid.
Buckle up.
Eric Blair (0b61b2) — 7/2/2009 @ 2:14 pmOdd, isn’t it IMP, that despite being deeply concerned, everything Teh One does seems designed to make things worse ..
JD (fe461f) — 7/2/2009 @ 2:18 pmEric, regarding your comment at 12:14 pm, check out this article on the new unemployment figures in the LA Times. Note how it is eleven paragraphs long, but the first mention of the Obama Administration is in the eleventh paragraph. Note too that the mention of the Obama Administration is purely about how they are “trying to help workers.”
Now picture the same article being written during the Bush Administration. Do you have any doubt that the first sentence would be “Dealing a direct blow to the Bush Administration’s recovery policies, the nation’s unemployment rate. . .”?
JVW (a8c610) — 7/2/2009 @ 2:21 pmSure enough, JVW. Hypocrites.
Eric Blair (c8876d) — 7/2/2009 @ 2:26 pmI think we all need to get jobs with the government. It’s the only safe place to work during the Obama administration.
daleyrocks (718861) — 7/2/2009 @ 3:01 pmBush was right that the economy was not headed for a recession. What the FDIC, Schumer, mysterious bond investors, and other did was precipitated destruction of our economy when Mccain gained the lead in the polls.
Juan (f4577e) — 7/2/2009 @ 3:21 pmPerhaps DCSCA can inform us of when it will no longer be Bush’s fault? What is the time frame? Is that dependent on whether there’s an uptick or not? Obviously most of us are unaware of this set of rules.
Dana (8d88ef) — 7/2/2009 @ 3:27 pmDCSCA cannot inform us of anything. That noise in his ears is too loud. tapocketa, tapocketa, tapocketa.
What Obama has to hope for is a Republican takeover of Congress next year. That is what saved Clinton.
The collapse of Obama mania will be ugly. I hate to say I told you so but…
Mike K (2cf494) — 7/2/2009 @ 3:33 pmNow that Ear Leader has been ‘deeply concerned,’ we can go on to ‘let him be perfectly clear.’
luagha (5cbe06) — 7/2/2009 @ 3:38 pmExcuse me for asking a simple question – but how does the loss of 467,000 jobs translate into only a .1% change in the unemployment rate. Are there really 467,000,000 jobs in America? (1.4 jobs per person)
bendover (552a76) — 7/2/2009 @ 4:12 pmWell, Obama’s stimulus package is turning out to be the most expensive failure in history.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/2/2009 @ 4:32 pmbendover:
kaf (525681) — 7/2/2009 @ 6:03 pmFolks have to have actively looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has the all the info.
Bush: Economy Not In Recession
I recall a few years ago a variety of polls indicating large (and growing) numbers of Americans believed the nation was headed in the wrong direction and apparently thought the economy was a big reason for that. At that time, the biggest downer was the soaring price of gasoline, which understandably made people antsy.
However, other basic features of the business climate still were quite robust. Of course, that robustness may have been built on a bubble, but I don’t think many Americans increasing degree of gloominess was due to their skill in being clairvoyant.
In a way, I believe all the years of boom had made many people, on one hand, strangely apprehensive, and, on the other, also rather soft-hearted (or soft-headed) and “progressive.” It’s much easier, after all, to be naive and foolish, and idealistic — to be a limousine liberal — when one has been leading a very comfortable, prosperous life for quite awhile. And because of that, and in order to satisfy their pangs of a guilty conscience, they may have felt the need to repent, if you will, and to buy into the notion that with happiness and success one must vote for the do-gooder, for the lovely liberal, for the protector of the underdog (sadly lost and forgotten in the midst of all of our stunning, greedy prosperity!), for the wonderful Democrat Party.
So many Americans have gotten what they wanted, and now their gloom expressed in previous years can be in sync with the foolish, ass-backwards politicians and policies they’ve pushed into the White House, Congress and various state houses throughout the country.
Mark (411533) — 7/2/2009 @ 10:59 pm#22- A year at least. Review FDR’s early efforts and the years it took to restructure and reregulate from the wreckage of the Harding/Coolidge/Hoover mess. The country cut him a lot of slack in hard times because he was trying new fixes, and he was liked and relected. There’s eight years of direct Bush/Cheney wreckage to clean up and 30 years of indirect debris to sweep away as well and the new administration isnt going to do it in 5 1/2 months, and in the first half of 2009 the wreckage from the Bush years continues to crash down, especially as lagging indicators like unemployment roll in. Americans will give President Obama twelve months to start showing results, the press less, but now that there’s 60 in the Senate, there’s no excuse for not pressing on with the agenda in hand. Pelosi and Reid are weak and conservatives should be grateful for that.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 7/3/2009 @ 4:07 am#21- Bush was right that the economy was not headed for a recession. What the FDIC, Schumer, mysterious bond investors, and other did was precipitated destruction of our economy when Mccain gained the lead in the polls. Nonsense.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 7/3/2009 @ 4:14 amIMP – I asked you a direct question. Why are Teh One’s plans making things worse? By design, or unintended consequence?
JD (b9ca6b) — 7/3/2009 @ 5:01 amBreaking News: Manufacturing & Technology eJournal Poll Shows Clean Energy Act Could Force Nearly 20 Percent of Manufacturers to Close
Read full report at
http://www.mfrtech.com/articles/2293.html
concernedcitizen (a8b72b) — 7/3/2009 @ 9:15 am“There’s eight years of direct Bush/Cheney wreckage to clean up”
DCSCA – Please elaborate on the wreckage specifically created by the Bush Administration and as usual, show your work if you can. Your mystery allegations and progressive conspiracy theories are fun.
daleyrocks (718861) — 7/3/2009 @ 9:24 amDCSCA’s attempt to rewrite the history of the FDR administration’s disasterous depression era policies are striking examples of DCSCA’s complete and utter ignorance of both economics and history.
But its no more ridiculous than DCSCA’s fabrication of Bush administration “wreckage” from complete fantasy.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/3/2009 @ 9:56 am