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    Friday, March 05, 2010

     

    Unemployment at 9.7%; Links on Jobs

    by Dollars and Sense

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the jobs numbers for February this morning; find the Employment Situation Summary here.

    I apologize for not keeping up with the blog for the last few days—we have been busy rushing the March/April issue of Dollars & Sense to the printers (late, but by less than usual for us!).

    I have just posted an article from the new issue on military Keynesianism; and here is the editorial note for the issue, whose theme is Guns (i.e., military spending) vs. Butter (i.e., spending on jobs):
    Word is out about how bad the long-term unemployment situation is likely to be. The cover story in the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly, How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America, declares, plausibly, that "a whole generation of young adults is likely to see its life chances permanently diminished by this recession."

    A recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the same outfit that calls the start- and end-dates of recessions, found that people who come of age during a recession "tend to support more government redistribution, but they have less confidence in public institutions," and tend to believe "that success in life depends more on luck than on effort." In other words, people who grow up in a recession are more likely to wind up in depression.

    In a New York Times article on long-term unemployment, Allen Sinai, chief economist for Decision Economics, gave a glimpse into how economic elites tend to think about unemployment: "American business is about maximizing shareholder value. You basically don't want workers." He continued, "You hire less, and you try to find capital equipment to replace them." Our vision of a future economy—one without bosses—somehow seems more sustainable than one without workers.

    There is an alternative to a jobless future: government policies that support full employment, including direct job-creation by the federal government. How would this be funded? There are lots of options, including a tax on financial transactions (which John Miller assesses in this issue's Up Against the Wall Street Journal), restoring tax rates to the progressive levels of the mid-20th century, and slashing our bloated military and "security" budgets. Now is the time to push for (many) fewer guns and (much) more butter.

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    3/05/2010 01:44:00 PM

    Comments:
    Following is some more alternative details on current U.S. unemployment situation:

    The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black male workers over 20-years-of- age in the United States increased from 17.6 to 17.8 percent between January and February 2010; while the “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all U.S. male workers over 20-years-of-age remained at 10 percent, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age also increased from 6.8 to 7.3 percent between January and February 2010; while the “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 12.1 percent in February 2010.

    The number of unemployed Black male workers over 20-years-of-age increased from 1,405,000 to 1,424,000 workers between January and February 2010, according to the “seasonally adjusted” figures; while the number of unemployed white workers increased jumped from 10,782,000 to 10,982,000, according to the “seasonally adjusted” figures. Between January and February 2010, the total number of unemployed workers in the United States also increased from 14,837,000 to 14,871,000 workers, according to the “seasonally adjusted” data.

    The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all Hispanic or Latino workers was still 12.4 percent in February 2010; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Asian-American workers in February 2010 remained at 8.4 percent.

    The “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 42 percent in February 2010; while the “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age remained at 23.5 percent in February 2010. The “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Hispanic or Latino youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 31.6 percent in February 2010.


    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ March 5, 2010 press release:

    “…Employment fell in construction and information…

    “The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was 6.1 million in February…About 4 in 10 unemployed persons have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more…

    “The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased from 8.3 to 8.8 million in February…These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job…

    “About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in February…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…

    “Among the marginally attached, there were 1.2 million discouraged workers in February…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

    “Construction employment fell by 64,000 in February…Job losses were concentrated in nonresidential building (-10,000) and among nonresidential specialty trade contractors (-35,000)…

    “Employment in the information industry dropped by 18,000 in February…

    “The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for…January was revised from -20,000 to -26,000…”
     
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