The unemployment rate

[pickinduck]

The unemployment rate that they give all of the time on the news is a total lie
It is only the people that signed up for unemployment which is a small part of those who are unemployed.
Why not give the real unemployment, that is what's really needed?!!!

[sherlew (Ret)]

I'm not sure how they would collect the data needed to calculate that. Researchers could go door to door with questionnaires, but they would probably have a lot of people closing the door in their faces.

It's one of those things that hard to suss out, much like the total loss of human life during any war or "police action." Never mind the ruined lives of those who survive and live in war zones.

Yes, I know that unemployment and poverty aren't as bad as wars, but still there is a similarity in the fact that we will probably never know what the figures are.

[Tomspy77]

Jun 28, 2009 13:05:55 GMT -6 pickinduck said:

The unemployment rate that they give all of the time on the news is a total lie
It is only the people that signed up for unemployment which is a small part of those who are unemployed.
Why not give the real unemployment, that is what's really needed?!!!

I have told this to PPL for awhile when I talk about this big mess we are all in right now, like Sherlew said, I don't know how we could get more accurate numbers, but we can spread the fact through places like the internet and word of mouth.

[pickinduck]

The way "they" keep track of everyone and everything I bet you "they" know the exact numbers.
Just off hand they could say how many peoples unemployment ran out with out them being hired (notice I didn't say, them getting a job).
They study and compile all kinds of records along with spying, they know.

[pickinduck]

Look what I found!

States Where the Unemployed Are Giving Up
By Liz Wolgemuth
On Wednesday July 22, 2009, 11:06 am EDT
Buzz up! 1266 Print.In some U.S. states, nearly half of the job seekers who have stopped looking for work have done so because they simply don't believe they'll find anything. Indeed, the number of discouraged workers nationwide has more than doubled in the past year. This trend won't be reflected in the widely publicized unemployment rate, as discouraged workers aren't included among the unemployed. Still, in states as diverse as Mississippi, South Dakota, and New York, the span of this often invisible slice of workers signals a population losing its hope.

[Search for your best place to find a job.]

Most jobless people who have stopped looking for work are otherwise engaged--they're back in school, taking on family responsibilities, or too sick to search. They, along with workers who have stopped because they're discouraged, make up a group that the Labor Department calls the "marginally attached." They're included in some of the broader measures of unemployment, but they're officially not part of the workforce. While discouraged workers make up about a third of the marginally attached nationwide, their numbers have been increasing.

Between the third quarter of last year and the second quarter of this year, Mississippi averaged the highest percentage of discouraged job seekers among its marginally attached--nearly 50 percent, compared with 32.6 percent nationwide. South Dakota ranked second after Mississippi, with 48.5 percent of marginally attached workers classified as discouraged. Florida, Michigan, Connecticut, West Virginia, and New York followed in ranking for the highest rates of discouragement.

Discouraged workers are characterized by their perceptions. They don't think work is available for them, or they believe they lack the necessary training to be hired. They may be convinced that employers think they're too young or too old, or they believe that they face some other kind of discrimination that prevents them from finding work. And while there are discouraged workers in healthy economies, in a prolonged recession such as this one, worker pessimism tends to skyrocket.

[See 10 cities with the most job postings per capita.]

The heights of discouragement in Mississippi are significant. "It says something about the situation in that state when half of the people with a relatively recent commitment to searching for a job have stopped because they believe nothing is available for them," says Thomas Krolik, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between the third quarter of last year and the second quarter of this year, Mississippi's average unemployment rate was 7.9 percent. Add in all the discouraged workers, and the rate shoots up to 8.8 percent, a 0.9 percentage-point jump. Nationwide, the average difference between the unemployment rate and the rate of unemployed plus discouraged workers was about 0.4 percentage point. Michigan and New York also ranked high by that measure.

Charles Campbell, a professor of economics at Mississippi State University, says the state struggles with regions of particularly high unemployment, "where there really are no jobs." Many of the residents of those regions lack the skills and means to find work in outside areas, Campbell says, so they remain unemployed.

In other states, the situation may be more obvious. In Michigan, the demise of the domestic auto industry has brought job destruction far outpacing the national average. Michigan's unemployment rate for June topped 15.2 percent, compared with 9.5 percent nationally. Across the country, Florida has been hit hard by the housing bust, and unemployment in the state reached 10.6 percent in June.

But higher unemployment rates and lousier job markets alone don't explain the high rates of discouragement. Connecticut, New York, and West Virginia have seen their numbers of jobless workers rise during the downturn, but their unemployment rates are all below the national average.

Several things could nudge job seekers toward hopelessness: negative media coverage of the job market; unsuccessful job searches among friends and family; their own long-term unemployment. Also, men are more likely to give up their job search because they've become discouraged--they make up 63 percent of the total group. Younger workers, blacks, and Hispanics are also overrepresented in the discouraged-worker category, according to the Labor Department.

The housing bust could be partly to blame. Workers may simply give up because there are no openings matching their skill set within their geographical area, Krolik says. If workers own homes they can't sell, their ability to move for a new job is severely limited. The effect could be exacerbated by areas where homes are a particularly difficult sell or homeowners are disproportionately underwater, as those markets have also tended to see higher unemployment rates.

[See 7 lessons from a successful job search.]

Whatever workers' motivation, many economists are now focusing more on their results. Hoyt Bleakley Jr., a University of Chicago economist, says researchers are paying less attention to how many job seekers say they're looking for work and more attention to how quickly they are actually finding it. With 4.4 million job seekers nationwide out of work for more than 27 weeks or more in June, "those numbers are pretty grim," Bleakley says. "People who claim they're looking for work are not finding it." It's hardly surprising, then, how many have simply given up looking.

This is from the U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

[Tomspy77]

This is what is known as a 'Cluster F^@#'. Thing is was it intentional?

[pickinduck]

We should really study and talk about that article.
You know the numbers are way off.
That they mention it is an indicator as to how bad it is.
There is still allot of propaganda going on here

[pickinduck]

I remember when I had to start fighting back, they reported at that time that the average length of time between jobs was 4 weeks. Its over 25 years now for me

[Tomspy77]

It would seem at times that we live in a George Orwell novel, with the masters pulling the puppets strings, but there seems to be a twist. Rather then letting it be known that we are in this situation, they entertain us with the internet, porn, TV and movies, so we blissfully walk along this downward path. I'm not in a position to know how much of all this 'propaganda' is intentionally created, but I do know that the founding fathers of this country would cry if they could see us now.

[sherlew (Ret)]

Or become very angry and disillusioned.

[Tomspy77]

Or start a revolution perhaps?

This is the other problem...we have become so spoon feed and complacent (I'm a sheep too, so I'm not putting anyone here down...all together now: Baa! Baa!! ) that we probably would never take the action they took back then, and they knew of the danger too.
I lost a lot of links when my PC crashed recently, but I had a link with all these quotes by some of the bigger names in American history, warning us of the bank systems and what could become of our freedom is treated unwisely. I'll have to see if I can find again sometime.

[sherlew (Ret)]

Yes, please, that would be interesting. As for starting a revolution, one must think of what the losses might be and whether the results of such a revolution is worth it. Back in our founding father's day, it was. A new country was created. Changes can be made in our present day and time, but is an actual revolution, the type that most people think of, required for change to happen?

Also, even if a successful revolution or other form of change occurs, things won't remain peachy for long. Unfortunately we're dealing with human nature. After about one or two hundred years or so of certain people getting their way at the expense of others, society will be right back to about where we are now, unless we can change human nature.

We'd just be hitting a reset button.

[Tomspy77]

^^^ Does RTD do politics too? ;D

You are right eventually, unless human nature changes, we would be right back in the same boat rowing against the current of society, but on the other hand sometimes it is better to hit reset then to let it get beyond the point where there is anything real going on around you, and you can at least believe in some of the principles of the country you are living in.

Thing is, if the conspiracy theories are to be believed, the taxes and the banking system are the enemy (As it was in the 1700's coincidentally) and they have made a true revolution harder by making the world global, like with the UN and other such entity's.

I am on the fence for most of this (Although I have read, heard and seen enough evidence to convince me that something more went on on 9/11, there was just too many variables that made the official 9/11 commission report I read hard to swallow.), but have heard and read a few odd things that place the seed of doubt about what goes on around me, especially in economic times like these, where it seems that the rich are keeping their wealth for the most part while the poor and middle class sink into the quick sand of job loss, lost hours and wages and house foreclosure.

Right now I am in dire straits myself. I am behind on my rent and my hours were cut. Meanwhile the state minimum wage went up at the start of last month, meaning that I am now making closer to the state minimum at my crappy job, and might as well just get a new one. Oh wait, I can't I'm cursed with back and leg problems, and I'm scared to try to find a new job as I'm terrified I will not be able to find one or that if I do it will be gone soon after I get it due to the economy.

[sherlew (Ret)]

Really wish I could help, Tom. Afraid that I don't have any good ideas or suggestions.