HuffPost's Real Misery Index: Nearly One In Six Americans Are Jobless Or Underemployed

The rise in unemployment continues to devastate Americans, according to the latest update of the Huffington Post Real Misery Index.

The index rose to 32.9 after peaking at 32.3 in August, largely due to the increase in the U6 unemployment rate, which tracks part-time workers looking for full-time employment and those who've given up looking for work. Almost one in six Americans are jobless or underemployed and the economy has lost 7.3 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The index would be even higher were it not for a few bright spots in the economy, such as no annual percent increase in food and beverage prices and a slight uptick in housing prices.

The states with the highest underemployment rates through the third quarter of this year were Michigan (20.9 percent), Oregon (20.1 percent), California (19.6 percent) and South Carolina (18.4 percent).

And the numbers threaten to go higher with some economists predicting a 13% unemployment rate -- a post-World War II high -- in the aftermath of the recession.

"This is going to be the mother of all jobless recoveries," David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates told Bloomberg Radio on Monday morning.

Another major factor in the index's increase was a rise in the number of households receiving food stamps, which soared 24% percent compared to the previous year. Recently, some major retailers, such as Costco, announced that they would start accepting food stamps due to increased demand.

"Certainly this economy was a wake-up call," Costco CFO Richard Galanti recently told investors. "It is not just very low-end economic strata that are using these (who) typically don't have purchasing power."

To formulate our index, which provides a better snapshot of the economy than the often-criticized misery index (inflation added to unemployment), we used a more accurate unemployment statistic (the U6 formulation), with the inflation rate for three essentials (food and beverages, gas, medical costs), and year-over-year percent changes in credit card delinquencies, housing prices, food stamp participation, and home equity loan deficiencies. We gave equal weight to the broad unemployment numbers and the combination of the other seven metrics (with housing prices having an inverse relationship to the index).

Comments

[FreeSpeech4All]

That would be, SAME boat. Sorry about the typo.

[FreeSpeech4All]

I am self-employed and have seen my income drop significantly. I know many others in the boat. Yet we don't get counted in the statistics of joblessness or underemployment. The situation out here is much worse than they're letting on.

[FreedomCorpse]

There will be no recovery that is jobless, so the yak about a 'jobless' recovery is financial world blabber talk. It would have taken a fraction of the money used to 'bail out' these banks, to pay off all the outstanding mortgages in the country...­.the insanity of the federal government on the issue of economics only say they are clueless, corrupt and serving financial interests that have nothing to do with the people of the United States as had every trade and economic policy passed in the past 20 years.

[mari6105]

Obama is toast if he doesn't turn this around. No President can reclaim an election with 16% unemployment.

They need to quite beating the healthcare horse. The damn thing is dead. There aren't enough numbers to pass anything of consequence.

[jmpurser]

Yes but we bailed out the bankers' bonuses, kept our wars going, stopped gays from getting married and destroyed health care reform in the name of corporate welfare.

Things are going just fine!

[Democratt]

This more than anything else is why I don't trust Obama anymore.

The moment it became clear he wasn't going to fight to actually clean up the financial industry is the moment it became clear that the hope and change rhetoric was just that, rhetoric. All he cares about is keeping corporate money in dem hands, he doesn't dare anger his corporate sponsors.

good articles 4 slow news day: http://financeopinionss.blogspot.com

the system needs to be overhauled cuz nothing seems to change .

[dadw5boys]

Check the SBS Website !!!!!

The Federal Government is willing to assume 85 % of the risk if you start a business !!!

THAT GOES TO ZERO IF YOUR STATE ECONOMIC DEBOLPMENT BOARD HELPS YOU !!!!!!

START A BUSINESS !!!!!

Do not let people fool you ! You can now get an application in. Call your state Economic Borads.

[ResearchtheFacts]

Easier said then done. Do you have any idea how many strings will be attached? Just getting a home loan was a nightmare but I got one and I had collateral plus low debt to income ratio. Small businesses that are currently in business are having trouble borrowing money or growing because of a lack there of. Did it say what the percentage was of how many have gotten help on the website? And, you better have a locked solid business plan not written from a self help how-to book.

[dadw5boys]

Ok don't even try then, your choice.

If you have a good idea they will bring help with the Business Plan.

Plans always change anyways.

[dadw5boys]

Almost everyone who applys around here gets at least some strart up money.

[dadw5boys]

they are working with score

[flyovercountry1]

I am growing weary of this "lagging indicator" explanation of our unemployment numbers...­..
my thoughts..­..runaway deficits, lack of focus on job creation, disregard of small business, pushing environmental and healthcare reform....­these are "lagging indicators" of electing a liberal rookie for leader of the free world

[TradeLosses]

Lets all pray that the health care bill doesn't get stonewalled in the Senate...

good articles; http://financeopinions.blogspot.com

This is just one step in a staircase of much needed reforms after 8 years of destruction.

[barksalot]

The American people foolishly thought shovel ready jobs meant just that not years down the road, not jobs saved, not all jobs at union scale. $780 billion boondoggle.

[pons1595]

"Our estimate of real unemployment, U6 minus the Birth/Death ratio, is 21% or 30 million people unemployed or employed part-time. If you include dependents that affects some 100 of 300 million Americans. In part as a result, yoy there has been 126,000 bankruptcies up 34%."

http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/The_Flight_To_Quality_Lands_On_Gold

[capitaldysfunction]

Whiners. Eaters. That is what the corporatists say.
The push back can begin in any city at any time. Once reported it can spread to other cities. Politics as usual just doesn't work in America anymore.

[TimnySlagle]

CHANGE!

[lovbug]

America is now a service industry. so now all the American jobs are going to China and India. Making products and selling it back to us. Oh yeah, the greedy capitalists have figured out how to pillage Americans, legally. Capitalism at work. They tapped into the market of our weaknesses -- cheap goods and a problem with consumption. We consume too much junk and we love cheap products and labor. So it's win win for the corporates. Do all the manufacturing overseas and pay people $10 a week, then sell the products back to Americans at prices that we think are affordable (but in reality we are overpaying), then take our huge American profits and pay our American and overseas investors and voila -- riches!

America is on the downward spiral. We are in denial. The wealthy have hi-jacked our country. America will never be what it use to. The tides have turned. This is what greed and capitalism produce. Rome was not built in a day, but it collasped pretty quickly, all because of greed.

I called my bank last week and the operator was in India -- go figure.

[bccmeteorites]

I was saddened to read your post but faved it anyway.

[MacQ]

If we made America a business-friendly environment, they wouldn't have gone overseas. You can thank congress for all their taxing, and the unions for all their demands for higher wages and benefits for that.

[OldTiredSarge]

Yeah, because lowly labor should never be paid a wage on which they could actually live.

[CommunistUtopia]

Change we can Believe in. When will the Democrat Party stop trying to destroy America?

[lovbug]

The Republicans ruined America. The Democrats just always get left hanging with the problem and is always expected to fix things. I have no clue why Americans keep putting Republicans in office, look what is happening to our country. some things just can't be fixed, it's too far gone. I don't think Democrats can fix things in one term. It wil take years. The damage Republicans have done for the past 8 years will take years to repair. These Republicans have sold out our country for money. All our jobs are gone, all our money is gone to big investors and banks and the people are suffering slowly but surely. This is a travesty.

[wdw505]

yawn