The American economy lost 20,000 jobs in April, the fourth consecutive month of decline, in what many economists took as powerful evidence that the United States is almost certainly now ensnared in a recession.
But the number of jobs reported lost by the Labor Department on Friday was significantly smaller than most analysts had predicted, and the unemployment rate nudged down to 5 percent, raising hopes that the economy may not suffer as severely as once feared.
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Clearly these people are cooking the books. After a year or so of unemployed status the statistic drops off the record and is no longer considered unemployed.
For more than several years there are more employable persons that there are jobs.
Actually after 26 weeks you drop off the books and off the unemployment statistics. The figure you want is the discouraged worker. Ther person who, because there are no jobs, discontinue looking.
George Bush did the math all by himself...!
1. 20,000 lost jobs a month should be compared against 150,000 needed just to maintain employment rates. So that's 170,000 down from the base level needed to maintain current employment levels.
2. The way unemployment rate is computed in the U.S. is a sad useless joke.
Au contraire, the unemployment numbers serve the Bush administration's purpose.
The unemployment stats do not begin to address one of the fundamental issues, namely reductions in gross pay for the next job, along with loss of benefits. This administration has succeeded in being able to reduce the standard of living of the average worker. Meanwhile, the rich continue to live better than their previous generation.
I said it before, and I'll say it again. George Bush and his ilk are the reverse Robin Hoods- steal from the poor and give to the rich!
Since President Bush took office in 2001 over 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the U.S. In fact, the problem is so severe that such a loss, of not only manufacturing jobs but of actual industries, now poses a national security threat. If the keystone of free-trade is comparative advantage how does moving America's advantage to China accomplish anything except our nation's ruin?
GW Bush has lost more jobs than any President since Hoover.
They're lost? Can't find 'em? Look under the desk. Nope, not there. Behind the filing cabinet? Nope. Just no idea where they went. Heh-heh.
One wonders whether the Bush administration policies which contributed to this mess were put in place in order to cause it so as to make the jobless populace seek employment with the military.
If you believe the government's unemployment numbers then you believe there are still undiscovered WMD's in Iraq.......
These numbers are as nonsensical as the government's inflation figures.
Amazing how no one in the mainstream media questions these statistics.
Do you mean the "liberal" media owned by the right wing? The MSM has ceased being relevant many years ago....
Nonsensical is right., 300,000 lost in the last three months and then throw in the 150,000 per month that need to be created just to keep up with the expanding worker base and you have a net loss of 750,000 jobs over the last three month. Yet the unemployment numbers go down. Neat trick.
Not just the unemployment numbers but the inflation numbers, which EXCLUDE food, energy and health care.
Surely food and gas have increased more than 5% in the last year.
most food has doubled or tripled in price.
Try being a disabled veteran living on a fixed income the rest of your life. You can even excerise when your abilty to stand long is limited so you gain weight and lose muscle strenght. If your luck and don't have mental problems you might stay married and get to see your kids a lot. If not lucky well life pretty much sucks.
You can't build a 401k on a fixed income nor do you get those matching funds to accelerate the growth of that fund.
So before you start whinnig about being out of work SMILE AND BE HAPPY YOUR NOT ONE OF US stuck in a cycle of pain.
no offense, but jobless is jobless which means no income or health coverage whatsoever, and plenty of unemployed people suffer from pain just as you apparently do. be glad you have at least some income coming in as many out there don't.
Oh, be glad.
No. no. no...we're GROWING, sayeth the Ministry of Lying Statistics.
Can't have your cake and eat it too.
Looks like we'll have to wait to buy that McMansion, honey. Sorry.
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New York Times | PETER S. GOODMAN and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM | May 3, 2008 12:00 PM