MARCH U.S. JOBLESS NUMBER INCREASES TO 5.7%

In 1996, unemployment was at 6% and everyone said the economy was doing great.

ROFL!!!!

As I said to another Bush loyalist, I have an old college friend in Syracuse, NY. When I talk to him during the winter, I always ask about the weather. He usually says something like, "It's 20' and we already have 5 feet of snow on the ground."

"How can you stand it," I say?

He says, "Well, it's worse in Nome, AK, so I'm not complaining."

OK. LOL!!!!

In other words, unemployment numbers from 8 years ago don't give Bush a pass.

The calculation of the unemployment rate is and always has been IMO bogus. It is based on those who are seeking employment and ignores those that have given up and are no longer actively seeking employment. The reason for the uptick in the unemployment rate despite the numbers of newly employed simply reflects the number of people who have returned to the job market.

To measure the unemployment rates of eight or so years ago against today's is also bogus since the number of people who have given up and are no longer activly seeking employment is far greater today than it was eight years ago.

So, au1929, does that mean that people who already have a job, but are looking for a new job, are included in that 'unemployment number'?

L.R.R.Hood


I would think not..

I should also note that the numbers do not reflect the type of employment. How many of the people are forced to take jobs that do not measure up to their skill, education and experience level or previous pay scale. Essentially many are now underemployed.

Our local news report has a business reporter who said tonight that a large percentage of the 308,000 new jobs Bush and his loyalists are chortling about are burger flippers and part-timers.

This really is George W. Bush's Amerika.

Go here:

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls

Click in the check box that says "Unemployment Rate (Seasonally Adjusted) - LNS14000000."

Scroll down and click the "Retrieve data" button.

When the statistics page comes up, click in the check box that says "include graphs," then click the blue "GO" button.

You will now have a nice graph of unemployment numbers for the last 10 years.

Now click the drop down menu next to "From" and change the year to 1964, then click the blue "GO" button. Now you'll be able to see the unemployment numbers for the last 40 years. And you'll be able to see how unemployment goes in cycles, just like almost any other statistic you can think of.

Excellent graphic.

Unemployment really has gotten worse since Bush won his lawsuit.

Their database was shut down. I saved the graph. Unemployment has peaked at a fairly low level and is on its way back down.

True!

Also, many of the "unemployed" don't want to work and never will.

How has this graph accomodated the steady increase in population during the time depicted?

The "Y" or vertical scale is the unemployment rate in percent. It doesn't matter what the population is.

My point was that people who don't like Bush will say whatever they can to make people think he's doing a bad job.