New York Times:
For many years, unemployment in the United States was lower than in Western Europe, a fact often cited by people who argued that the flexibility inherent in the American system -- it is easier to both hire and fire workers than in many European countries -- produced more jobs.
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my unemployment just ran out-so now i am not "unemployed" at least in the unemployment rate %. rememember-when you guffaw at seeing Spain's 17% unemployment-theirs is an ACTUAL #- not the fake Labor Dept' smoke and mirrors- the US would easily be 20% plus using European ratings
Baloney stats. The US does not count the "invisible" people. These are people who gave up looking after their benefits ran out. And then there is the underempoyed.
Take off the rose colored visors......we're at ~ 20% unempoyment. DEPRESSION level unemployment.
Our corrupt two party system and corporate greed is destroying this country.
We are soon to be a two-caste society like India.
One can only hope that our customer-service jobs will return to America when India decided they need to outsource their jobs, maybe in 2030.
DSOTM i am a proud supporter of Barak Obama and also agree with you on partly what you said.
That is our corrupt Country does not care for WE THE PEOPLE.
We need to revolt peacefully and tell our governmet we want changers and prosecutions for the boards of banks that placed pressure on the Ceos and Pres. of banks to loan money in the trillions blindly even though they new it could never be paid back.
NEW CITY is where the cancer that caused of this is and the FEDS are corrup tjust like the prosecuters. Anyone causing a multi billion dollar fraud gets a pass and that is a fact.
I saw a multi billion dollar global fraud tale place and the fed had acess to tapes,a log that showed all the pay offs and someone who was part of the fraud wanting to make a deal. The feds covered this one up and none of you even know about it.
New York City is the fiancial capitol of the United States and i promise you there is trillions in frauds that they have covered up big time.
Although you many not like Elliot Spitzer before his problem he wanted to go after AIG so he want to the southern district federal prosecuter of NYC and guess what they told him to get off of it and they would take care of it. This is the same Soithern District i went to with a multi billion dollar fraud.
The major difference is that Western Europe ACTUALLY has a coherent social safety net, which is contrastingly inadequate in the US.
Since most of our corporations have either moved to China, outsourced to India or brought in foreign workers to undercut Americans, it is not difficult to believe this. We will regain our momentum only when we get American companies to return to America and employ American workers. In this global economy, the U.S. is one of the few holdouts. We must be wise and aggressive in business if we are to remain unique. In other words, if we can't get it together we'll be spending Euros very, very soon!
Didn't the economic crisis also start later in Europe than in the US?
America, swirling the drain.
The greater depression starts in about 6-9 months, when the final bubble, the bond bubble, collapses.
No kidding. The upcoming depression will be to the Great Depression what World War II was to the Great War. And like WWII, the greater depression has its causes in many of the same errors made to cause its predecessor, namely inflationary monetary policy and poor fiscal policy. Also, like WWII, the US government has absolved itself of any wrong doing in the greater depression and pins responsibility on other actors.
Europe will be the last to recover from this recession.
at least europe has cohesive social plans for dealing with these situations-here we just give blank checks to "too big to fail" banks that destroy blue collar manufacturing jobs
The way European countries count the unemployed is more like our U-6 calculation at about 16%.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm
Also, as was pointed out the European safety net is much more complete than is ours. About a quarter of the Stimulus went to shoring up our safety net. The Europeans also are not bankrupting their Treasuries bailing out financial entities that engaged in criminal activities
Did Western Europe not ship millions of jobs to China?
They shipped millions of jobs to America, which then shipped millions to China.
Less jobs means more people to fight in the Middle East. Yay NeoNeoCons!
Great, more good news. Ready for the tide to turn! Cheryl Mikela
Just remember folks, that the officially published "U.S. Jobless Rate" is about half the actual value because about five times, starting during Reagan's first term, the government made counting changes, each of which cut out some segment of the jobless and now it doesn't include people who are out there looking for work but who are inelidgeable for unemployment insurance (or other forms of "welfare").
Yes, that's right; if you're unable to find work before your benefits run out, you're no longer counted.
Yes, that's right, if you were an entrepreneur, didn't pay yourself via a "W-2" (which would be stupid) and your venture went bust, you aren't counted at all because you weren't paying in to unemployment insurance.
Yes, that's right, ALL the "social safety nets", especially including "welfare" are now time limited and a mere shadow of their former support.
Yes, that's right, the statistics our government now presents as a reflection of our unemployment rate are effectively a lie.
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Well said. We've been lying to ourselves for a long time (well, since Reagan) in order to "protect ourselves" from the truth that our system of running this country in terms of the economy, health, environment, and justice is inferior to just about every other western/developed nation.
I'm afraid America literally "can't handle the truth". Thus endeth the "home of the brave". It died shortly after "the government of the people, by the people, for the people" became a joke.
Thank you Ronald Reagan and the GOP for creating this "best of all possible worlds" as well as the Democrats for being too spineless to fight it.
This news is more republican prosperity.
Absolutely.
Real unemployment is at least double. If you include underemployment/part timers looking for full time and people who just gave up. U-6 around 20%
Every administration has fudged the way we calculate GDP and unemployment even under Clinton. Shadowstats and Chris Martenson explain this much better.
And the inflation numbers (CPI), and productivity, and and and...
The economic numbers from the federal government resemble the phony economic propaganda spewed my Maos China or Stalins USSR. Its all a big fat lie, and that lie was covered up by a 25-year orgy of speculation and risk-taking.
now its all falling apart.
You should research how unemployment is calculated. It has nothing, ABSOLUTELY nothing, to do with unemployment insurance or unemployment benefits. It's based entirely on the population survey, where (basically) anyone who doesn't have a job and has looked for work in the past 4 weeks is counted as unemployed.
It's basically the same system as is used by the EU, by Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and most other countries. Reagan did jigger it (with congress's approval) to include military, which was excluded before, to boost the numbers. But the EU does a similar thing with career military personel.
Rather than tell me I got it wrong, how about actually explaining what you think the right answer is and / or provide links.
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The good news is that unemployment *FELL* in 21 states in April. In addition to that the rate did NOT rise in 11 other states. Could the employment situation be on the road to improvement!
http://bit.ly/ozXcf
I would be skeptical about those numbers. They just don't jive with all the other indicators.
From Yahoo news:
The states that saw their job rolls grow only saw moderate increases. Arkansas and Montana gained the most jobs in April, at 1,500 each.
People are not counted as unemployed if they stopped looking for work. Dont be fooled: employment is NOT rising.
As I was driving to Germany this morning (about 10 miles from where I live in NL), I noticed the autobahn was packed with RV vehicles and people heading out on vacation.
I have to laugh at Americans that still think they are the greatest nation on earth when there is NO proof whatsover.
And they had not been thrown out of their homes?
Thats unheard of here. LOL
So why are you on a U.S. site this morning? Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself. Please stay in Europe.
I drove home on the freeway yesterday and there was a new homeless pandhandler with a cardboard sign on the off-ramp. Later passing through the neighborhood there was an unemployed guy selling strawberries on the sidewalk.
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First Posted: 05-22-09 06:16 PM | Updated: 05-22-09 06:59 PM