Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
Mollie Hemingway, Ed. ·
Jun 3, 2011 at 6:08am
The hits keep coming. I don't even care to harp on the fact that I keep reading these numbers are surprisingly bad or unexpected. With so many of my siblings and friends looking for work, I simply feel like crying -- and praying.
The U.S. gained only 54,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate is back up to 9.1%. It's the smallest monthly increase since September of last year. March and April numbers were also revised down by 39,000 total. Labor force participation stayed at the same 64.2% so the higher unemployment rate was not caused by that.
This has been a terrible week for economic news. And to think President Obama is going to campaign on this record and a call for more taxes.
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May '10
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
I see why Mitt Romney announced yesterday. Still think the OBL kill makes Obama golden?
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
Jim Pethokoukis notes that the unemployment rate for the same month four years ago was 4.4 percent.
Jun '10
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
When your nation's president, and half of Congress, is spending every day in economic Fantasy Land, who wants to take on the responsibility of new employees? We don't even know for certain that the US Dollar will survive these clowns.
Jan '11
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
If he wants to destroy himself, just stand back and let it happen. Unfortunately, he's taking the rest of us down with him.
Dec '10
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
Can we take President Obama at his word that if we stick with him for another term, he'll see to it that we stay on this same trajectory to economic recovery?
Aug '10
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
The actual number - including the underemployed - is about double that. If I owned a corporation I'd be very alarmed at everything Obama and his minions are doing. They're waging war on private enterprise; underhanded, duplicitous, occasionally subtle, but vicious .
May '10
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
Shut up. It's Bush's fault. This is the Bush Depression. Obama=Roosevelt.
May '10
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
Rush is wrong to harp on about the Leftist media calling this unexpected. He does have a point: the Left calls every piece of bad economic news under a Leftist administration unexpected. However, there are plenty of Larry Kudlows on our side (I'm a fan of Kudlow) who reach at straws to find reasons for hope. Many on the Right are willing to pretend a few months of good news marks a long-term trend. Our reasons might vary, but we should all be eager to believe that the economy is improving, even if we ultimately can't accept it as the truth.
In any case, job numbers are so manipulated by government and so vague (Temporary labor or careers? What jobs were lost?) that they are a poor indicator of economic health. I strongly doubt those numbers are calculated exactly the same way as they were decades ago, so comparisons are fruitless.
Mar '11
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
This. It is a crucial point and very few seem to grasp it. I am seriously dismayed when I see supposedly informed economic reporting that simply takes these figures at face value. The BLS Birth/Death adjustment alone provides wide leeway for manipulation.
May '11
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
I believe unemployment and inflation have been redined in recent years. I would bet that if they were defined in the same terms as in 1980 the Misery Index that Reagan talked about( inflation plus unemployment ) would be much worse than it was then.
Aug '10
Re: Lord, Have Mercy: Unemployment Hits 9.1%
Precisely the problem, isn't it?