Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GST who wrote (62537)	6/2/2006 1:27:47 PM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

US unemployment is low. Well you see GST - the way the gubbment calculates things - they haven't been seeking work for years now - so they don't make it into the official numbers - there is WORK all over for them - 6 dollar an hour fast food or "no future" service jobs - they would just rather bowl with walter and "the dude" than do that however. College grads are by all reports doing fine. All reports perhaps don't paint the right picture. MAKE IT ZERO!! (see everyone fudges the numbers - even walter) en.wikipedia.org Some hold that many of the low-income jobs (such as McJobs) aren't really a better option than unemployment with a welfare state (with its unemployment insurance benefits). But since it is difficult or impossible to get unemployment insurance benefits without having worked in the past, these jobs and unemployment are more complementary than they are substitutes. (These jobs are often held short-term, either by students or by those trying to gain experience; turnover in most McJobs is high, in excess of 30%/year.) Unemployment insurance keeps an available supply of workers for the McJobs, while the employers' choice of management techniques (low wages and benefits, few chances for advancement) is made with the existence of unemployment insurance in mind. This combination promotes the existence of one kind of unemployment, frictional unemployment. ....In these terms, much or most of frictional unemployment is voluntary, since it reflects individual search behavior. On the other hand, cyclical unemployment, structural unemployment, classical unemployment, and Marxian unemployment are largely involuntary in nature. However, the existence of structural unemployment may reflect choices made by the unemployed in the past, while classical unemployment may result from the legislative and economic choices made by labor unions and/or political parties aiming to help workers. So in practice, the distinction between voluntary and involuntary unemployment is hard to draw. The clearest cases of involuntary unemployment are those where there are fewer job vacancies than unemployed workers even when wages are allowed to adjust, so that even if all vacancies were to be filled, there would be unemployed workers. This is the case of cyclical unemployment and Marxian unemployment, for which macroeconomic forces lead to microeconomic unemployment. For more details, see unemployment types. The hurricane comes and blows away half of florida GST - but from what I understand - all those out of work workers will still be counted as "employed" but the weather will have put them out of work. ...Workers are also counted as "employed" if they have a job at which they did not work during the survey week because they were: On vacation; Ill; Taking care of some other family or personal obligation (for example, due to child-care problems); On maternity or paternity leave; Involved in an industrial dispute (strike or lock-out); or Prevented from working by bad weather. Medical problems Typically, employment and the labor force include only work done for economic gain. Hence, a homemaker is neither part of the labor force nor unemployed. Nor are full-time students nor prisoners considered to be part of the labor force or unemployment. The latter can be important. In 1999, economists Lawrence F. Katz and Alan B. Krueger estimated that increased incarceration lowered measured unemployment in the United States by 0.17 %age points between 1985 and the late 1990s. In particular, as of this writing (2004) 3 % of the US population is incarcerated. On the other hand, individuals are classified as "unemployed" if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks, and are currently available for work. The unemployed includes all individuals who were not working for pay but were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been temporarily laid off. Finally, it is possible to be neither employed nor unemployed by BLS definitions, i.e., to be outside of the "labor force." These are people who have no job and are not looking for one. Many of these are going to school or are retired. Family responsibilities keep others out of the labor force. Still others have a physical or mental disability which prevents them from participating in labor force activities. The accuracy of unemployment statistics The unemployment rate may be different from the impact of the economy on people. First, the unemployment figures indicate how many are not working for pay but seeking employment for pay. It is only indirectly connected with the number of people who are actually not working at all or working without pay. Second, in the United States those who work as little as one hour a week for payment are considered employed, even if they wish to work more. Therefore, critics believe that current methods of measuring unemployment are inaccurate in terms of the impact of unemployment on people as these methods do not take into account: Those who have lost their jobs and have become discouraged over time from actively looking for work. Those who are self-employed or wish to become self-employed, such as tradesmen or building contractors or IT consultants. Those who have retired before the official retirement age but would still like to work. Those on disability pensions who, while not possessing full health, still wish to work in occupations suitable for their medical conditions. Those who work for payment for as little as one hour per week but would like to work full-time. These people are "involuntary part-time" workers. Those who are underemployed, e.g., a computer programmer who is working in a retail store until he can find a permanent job. Labor market participation rate (the percentage of people aged between 15 and 64 who are currently employed or searching for employment) The total number of full-time jobs in an economy The number of people seeking work as a raw number and not a percentage The total number of person-hours worked in a month compared to the total number of person-hours people would like to work According to American Economist John Williams, "Real unemployment right now -- figured the way that the average person thinks of unemployment, meaning figured the way it was estimated back during the Great Depression -- is running about 12%. Real CPI right now is running at about 8%. And the real GDP probably is in contraction." Perhaps the problem lies with your friends or your location? Perhaps - they do live "the dude" lebowski lifestyle - but I am sure rosy colored unemployment number glasses also distort the reality.