Unemployment is now just below 9%.

[AggieTool]

Okay continue.:D

[OklahomaTuba]

Ahh, the good ol days.

http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/stimulus-vs-unemployment-december-dots.gif

[Chuck Bao]

Ahh, the good ol days.

http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/stimulus-vs-unemployment-december-dots.gif

Yeah, unemployment far exceeded the projections. So what? Every US administration always has too optimistic projections. Funny how you don't post what unemployment would have been without the stimulus plan. Besdies that it is a confidence game and part of a government's role is in cheerleading.

[OklahomaTuba]

Funny how you don't post what unemployment would have been without the stimulus plan.

So you're saying the "system is working" huh??

The porkulus plan hasn't done jack ****.

http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/jobs-lost-december-09.gif

Infact, its by far the 2nd most expensive failure in history. The first being Obama himself.

[yermom]

how do you know what it would be like without the "porkulus"?

[Chuck Bao]

how do you know what it would be like without the "porkulus"?

Actually I think that the porkulus was very successful, if you are a stock market investor. Holiday spending was up, which is a huge surprise to me. I'm not sure how people have money to spend and that may bring on a second wave of economic / financial crisis and we already shot our load with the porkulus. I don't think anyone knows.

[Crucifax Autumn]

I'm confused. On CNN earlier they said it was 10% nationally.

[AggieTool]

I'm confused. On CNN earlier they said it was 10% nationally.

No, that was the republican's approval rating.:D

[Crucifax Autumn]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100108/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy


Gripped by uncertainty over the economic recovery, employers chopped 85,000 jobs last month, and difficulty finding work helped chase more than half a million people out of the job market.

The unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent. It did not creep higher only because so many people stopped looking for work and are technically not counted as unemployed.

But the jobless rate is likely to rise in coming months as more people see signs of an improving economy and start looking for work again. Some economists think it could near 11 percent, which would be the highest since World War II, by June.


And in reality, it's much worse:


The 85,000 lost jobs for the month is based on a government survey of employers. A separate government survey of households found a much darker picture — nearly 600,000 fewer people said they had jobs in December than in November.

That gap could reflect layoffs at small businesses that are having trouble getting loans and can't afford to hire new people. That's something many economists think the employer survey misses because it undercounts small companies.

It was the second straight month the unemployment rate came in at 10 percent. The only reason it didn't rise was that 661,000 people stopped looking for jobs and left the work force.

In a normal economic recovery, more people would be entering, not leaving, the job market. If those people hadn't dropped out, the rate would have hit 10.4 percent in December, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute.

Counting the people who have given up looking for work and the part-time workers who would rather be working full-time, the so-called underemployment rate edged up to 17.3 percent in December. The record high is 17.4 percent, reached in October.


I don't give a shat if it's dems or pubs, stimulus or something else, but something needs to start happening FAST.


The December numbers complete a picture of a disastrous 2009 for American workers. The unemployment rate averaged 9.3 percent in 2009 — up from average of 5.8 percent in 2008 and the highest since 1983.

The number of unemployed has hit 15.3 million, up from 7.7 million when the recession started in at the end of 2007. The recession has wiped out 7.2 million jobs. And the number of people jobless for at least six months hit a record 6.1 million.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

I'm confused. On CNN earlier they said it was 10% nationally.

well, if we nuked Las Vegas it would drop to 9%.







;)

[Crucifax Autumn]

I hate to agree, but this is true, though Detroit would be a more effective target.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

Actually I think that the porkulus was very successful, if you are a stock market investor. Holiday spending was up, which is a huge surprise to me. I'm not sure how people have money to spend and that may bring on a second wave of economic / financial crisis and we already shot our load with the porkulus. I don't think anyone knows.


Holiday spending is up modestly from a dismal 2008 holiday season. The thing about stimulus is it's actually supposed to stimulate private sector activity. From that standpoint it's been a failure. The only job growth is in the public sector.

But bank profits are up because banks are using free fed money to inflate another stock market bubble. Who needs fundamentals when you have liquidity. And, of course, the banks that created this disaster are ready to payout more huge bonuses while saying **** you to the rest of us.

[OklahomaTuba]

Glad we just wasted nearly a trillion on something that doesn't work.


Ten months into The One Termer's first economic stimulus plan, a surge in spending on roads and bridges has had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, an Associated Press analysis has found.

Spend a lot or spend nothing at all, it didn't matter, the AP analysis showed: Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation, raising questions about Obama's argument that more road money would address an "urgent need to accelerate job growth."

..."As a policy tool for creating jobs, this doesn't seem to have much bite," said Emory University economist Thomas Smith, who supported the stimulus and reviewed AP's analysis. "In terms of creating jobs, it doesn't seem like it's created very many. It may well be employing lots of people but those two things are very different."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100111/ap_on_bi_ge/us_stimulus_unemployment

[OklahomaTuba]

Maybe its Barack Hoover Obama, not Hussien???

In any case, not a very uplifting article for a cold monday morning.


America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels

December was the worst month for US unemployment since the Great Recession began. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6962632/America-slides-deeper-into-depression-as-Wall-Street-revels.html