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Unemployment Takes Its Biggest Jump Since 1986

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Posted on Jun 6, 2008
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Economics 101: A recession occurs when GNP decreases and unemployment increases.

In what one economist has called the “strongest evidence yet” that the U.S. is in recession, the country’s jobless rate has grown 0.5% since April, the largest monthly jump in more than 20 years. The unemployment rate has been steadily rising this year, with 324,000 jobs lost since January.


The Los Angeles Times:

The nation’s unemployment rate took a sharp turn for the worse in May, jumping to 5.5% from 5% a month earlier—the largest one-month increase in more than two decades and a further sign that the ailing economy is not yet on the mend.

Altogether, the economy lost 49,000 jobs in May and 324,000 jobs since the beginning of the year—five straight months of contraction, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The economy must create about 100,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with population growth.

Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, said the report was “the strongest evidence yet that the economic expansion has slipped into a recession of uncertain depth and duration.”

“The situation is even worse than this jump indicates,” Morici said. “A large number of adults have left the labor force in recent years. Factoring in the decline in the number of adults participating in the labor force, the unemployment rate is closer to 7%.”

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By SlimTim, June 9, 2008 at 8:54 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Yes, I see your websites…but I’ll raise you the domino effect. They all fall down, except those in the medical field ect. Our service economy won’t save us our jobs and you know it.

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By James Morris, June 7, 2008 at 12:28 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Yes unemployment is up but you are not a statistic and there are still thousands of 75K, 100K and 150K jobs out there. try these sites:

http://www.realmatch.com
http://www.monster.com
http://www.hotjobs.com

You see?

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By G.Anderson, June 7, 2008 at 11:25 am #

The word recession was invented, because the “D” word, made the bankers too nervous.

Unfortunately our fate is no longer in our hands, but in the hands of foreign governments who own our debt, they are the ones who will decide our fate.

Hard times ahead for us all.

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By cadence, June 7, 2008 at 9:30 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I cannot comment on long term trends.  What I know is this:  I have had five employees leave stable employment with my small company (law practice) within the last six months.  Two left to start their own small businesses, and two left to accompany them.  One left to take care of small children.  These employees left high paying jobs, health insurance, retirement benefits, to roll the dice in new enterprises.  Although I question their timing, and the extent to which they are watching the economy, I also wonder if the loss of confidence in the economy is as great as reported.  I wonder if the economy is as bad off as reported. But I am a cockeyed optimist and a big conspiracy theorist, so my skepticism always has things better than they really are!

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By Bukko in Australia, June 6, 2008 at 10:58 pm #

Everyone knows the government’s rosy unemployment figures are lies. If you haven’t read Kevin Phillips’ article on the way that economic stats have been faked since JFK’s time, you should, because it lays out the deception in a way that even non-economists can understand. (Democrats have been doing as well as Repiglicans.) Now it seems the magnitude of the unemployment disaster is so huge that it’s getting hard for the gov to lie any more, so it has to admit joblessness is on the rise.

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By GoldenT, June 6, 2008 at 4:57 pm #

The risk we face is far greater than recession. Rather, it is more likely profound economic dislocation reflecting the experience of Wiemar Germany in 1923. We all know what came next.

What few of us seem to understand is how financiers who animate the British Empire and elevate Tory sympathizers here in the U.S. are behind such intrigues which, today, bring us $4 a gallon gas and, tomorrow, another wack job disguised as a “leader.”

Where the hell is Henry Clay when you need him? We need a return to the American System of Political Economy if ever we are to survive as a Constitutional Republic.

Indeed, Representative Kucinich’s HR 3400 is a fine example of financial and economic power the People possess ... if only they would turn away from the British-dominated, so-call “free” press and all the outright fantasies and fairy tales they spin. Like, for example, talk of recession when we are well on our way to outright collapse.

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