• Space/Science
  • GeekSpeak
  • Mysteries of
    the Multiverse
  • Science Fiction
  • The Comestible Zone
  • Off-Topic
  • Community
  • Flame
  • CurrentEvents

Recent posts

Boulder will be in your news soon. podrock June 1, 2025 3:14 pm (CurrentEvents)

It's over folks RL June 1, 2025 12:38 pm (Space/Science)

Administration solves things the old fashion way BuckGalaxy June 1, 2025 11:01 am (Flame)

Issacman out as NASA Admin BuckGalaxy May 31, 2025 9:40 pm (Space/Science)

Lie, cheat and disable mechanisms... BuckGalaxy May 31, 2025 8:04 pm (Space/Science)

Big beautiful wall RobVG May 31, 2025 11:50 am (Flame)

2025 Humans to the Moon & Mars Summit May 28 and 29 BuckGalaxy May 28, 2025 2:52 pm (Space/Science)

C'mon a little closer gonna do it to you BuckGalaxy May 27, 2025 9:46 pm (Off-Topic)

Watching SpaceX Starship flight 9, 7:30pm EST BuckGalaxy May 27, 2025 3:59 pm (Space/Science)

Same old song and dance BuckGalaxy May 26, 2025 10:02 pm (Flame)

Russia and China agree to build a nuclear power plant on the moon BuckGalaxy May 26, 2025 2:03 pm (Space/Science)

Dune books 2-7 BuckGalaxy May 26, 2025 12:46 pm (Science Fiction)

Home » CurrentEvents

Dow breaks 17K, unemployment at 6.1% July 3, 2014 6:41 pm ER

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/upshot/its-hard-to-claim-the-good-news-is-really-bad.html?action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

It’s Hard to Claim the Good News Is Really Bad
JULY 3, 2014

Floyd Norris

As the labor market has improved over the past couple of years, a litany of reasons has been offered to explain why the picture is really not so good:

The unemployment rate is falling because people are dropping out of the labor force. The job numbers are being inflated by suspect seasonal adjustments. The birth-death model, which the Labor Department uses to estimate jobs from newly created companies, is providing a boost that will turn out to not be there. The real problem is long-term unemployment.

The trouble for those who would be negative is that none of those things are true now.

The proportion of the unemployed who have been out of work for more than six months fell below one-third in June for the first time in five years. The seasonal adjustments and the birth-death model all worked to reduce the reported job gain, not increase it. The household survey found 407,000 more people had jobs, well above the 288,000 figure in the establishment survey.

The so-called U-4 unemployment rate, which adds to the unemployment rate those who say they are not looking for work because they are discouraged, is down to 6.5 percent, a six-year low. The U-6 rate, which throws in every group pessimists can think of — including treating part-time workers as unemployed if they say they would rather have a full-time job — is 12.1 percent, also a six-year low.

But my search for something negative did find one thing. The teenage unemployment rate went up, to 21 percent from 19.2 percent. That rate is still well below where it was last summer, but it is something.

The job situation is still not back to where it should be. But there is no longer any way to claim the good news is really bad.

My take on it is the economy isn’t as good as it used to be, but its about as good as its ever going to get. This is what happens when a nation eats its seed corn, goes exclusively after short-term profits, and refuses to invest in its future. This is what happens when the business community has its own way, and gets to do any damn thing it wants.

This is the future, sports fans. Deal with it.

  • Yabbut!! "Dick Cheney Says Obama Cuts Defense to Spend on Food Stamps" or whatever else he wants to spend it on. by bowser 2014-07-03 19:56:44
    • Mr Cheney has his priorities all wrong. by ER 2014-07-04 09:29:32

    Search

    The Control Panel

    • Log in
    • Register