Unemployment really at 17.2%?

Mike Morrison · Dec 6, 2009

Quote from Vinny1:

How would a self employed person go about paying unemployment compensation taxes?

Easy. You make youself an employee of the company therefore paying taxes like any employee. People in the construction business up north do this because they're often out of work in the winter, but they can collect unemployment until it warms up enough to work again.

Btw, with respect to unemployment, when you consider that the majority of people under say 25 or so are virtually unemployable it's amazing the numbers aren't higher.

wesker · Dec 6, 2009

More background on the different statistics:

U1: Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
U3: Official unemployment rate per ILO definition.
U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment

PlusMinus · Dec 6, 2009

Quote from clacy:

I listened to his PA speech yesterday. He sounded like a complete moron on the subject of economics.

He has lost a lot of his "mojo" when giving speeches.

Not sure if he's rattled because the reality of the job and the horrible cards that he has been dealt, but he doesn't seem to have as much spark left.

Horrible cards he's been dealt? ROTFL. Cry a river eh? He deals his own cards. He signed TARP, he pushed stimulus, he wasted all summer on an unconstitutional healthcare bill, and he's firmly pitted himself against any pro-growth tax policy.

clacy · Dec 6, 2009

Quote from PlusMinus:

Horrible cards he's been dealt? ROTFL. Cry a river eh? He deals his own cards. He signed TARP, he pushed stimulus, he wasted all summer on an unconstitutional healthcare bill, and he's firmly pitted himself against any pro-growth tax policy.

You've got me wrong. I'm definitely an anti-Obama guy and a staunch Republican (more of a conservative actually), but you have to admit that he hasn't exactly had an easy set of circumstances to deal with.

Neither did Bush, btw. They've both had a lot on their plates, compared to many recent Presidents, though.

MKTrader · Dec 6, 2009

Quote from PlusMinus:

Horrible cards he's been dealt? ROTFL. Cry a river eh? He deals his own cards. He signed TARP, he pushed stimulus, he wasted all summer on an unconstitutional healthcare bill, and he's firmly pitted himself against any pro-growth tax policy.

Exactly. And what about "W's" cards? He came at the end of the Internet bubble with ridiculous record-high stock valuations. It had been obvious since at least '97-98 that a crash was coming.

But I won't cut him slack either. He cut taxes but not spending, and went for the spendulous just like McCain and MaObama.

PlusMinus · Dec 6, 2009

Quote from MKTrader:

Exactly. And what about "W's" cards? He came at the end of the Internet bubble with ridiculous record-high stock valuations. It had been obvious since at least '97-98 that a crash was coming.

But I won't cut him slack either. He cut taxes but not spending, and went for the spendulous just like McCain and MaObama.

Agreed. And btw, I meant Obama voted for TARP, not signed it.

krazykarl · Dec 7, 2009

Quote from wesker:

http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/unemployment-rate-video/

Scary, depressing.

Registered: Jul 2009

The real rate is 35.8%. See, I can make numbers up too. Maybe I should start a blog...

krazykarl · Dec 7, 2009

Quote from jj69:

Yesterday's jobs report is a countertrend blip. 11.5% or higher by sometime 2011. Nobody sees that right? It's coming. 17.2% is what it actually feels like right now for the average joe.

In a hurricane there is no such thing as a "blip" that goes against the trend. This recession has been so deep and strong, that the only time we will see the light is when the trend starts to reverse, and even then only looking backwards...

Sandybestdog · Dec 7, 2009

Iâd be the first to point out how bad the economy is, especially for people under 30. Not just for the past year, but really for about 4 now. But letâs just say unemployment really is 10% or whatever. That means that 1 out of every 10 people in the workforce is unemployed. Not underemployed, or part time or anything, but flat out unemployed.

Now, I donât know a whole lot of people, but out of everyone I know, I canât really think of 1 person who is flat out unemployed, let alone 1 out of 10. I sure know a lot of people who are struggling to just get by from day to day, but all of them at least have a job. The restaurant that my sister works at is closing soon, but Iâm pretty sure sheâll be able to find something soon.

Iâm not sure what my point is in saying all this. Seems like the problem isnât that there arenât any jobs, just not very good ones. Combine that with the fact that it seems like prices always just keep going up, but you never seem to get a raise to make up for it.

TraderZones · Dec 7, 2009

Quote from Sandybestdog:

Iâm not sure what my point is in saying all this. Seems like the problem isnât that there arenât any jobs, just not very good ones. Combine that with the fact that it seems like prices always just keep going up, but you never seem to get a raise to make up for it.

Every job that is open tends to have a lot of applicants. There was a part-time, 3-month IT position recently - 75 professionals sent their resumes...

New grads out of college are struggling to get anything in their field. Experienced pros are even applying for internships. Professionals are applying to jobs that usually go to high school or retirees (like fast food places).