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U.S. Unemployment Slips Below 9%

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Posted on Mar 4, 2011
Flickr / jrmyst

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent in February, the third straight monthly decline and putting it below 9 percent for the first time since April 2009.

But even with that improvement, 13.7 million Americans remain unemployed, almost double pre-recession levels.

—JCL

The BBC:

The US unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.9% in February, down from 9% the month before.

It is the third month in a row that the jobless rate has fallen, with February’s figure marking a near two-year low.

Employers added 192,000 jobs last month, the US Labor Department said, above market expectations.

Paul O’Neill, former US Treasury Secretary, described the data as “very positive”.

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By Steve E, March 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm Link to this comment

This new percentage figure will of course alter my plans of civil disobedience and
put me in perpetual limbo knowing everything is gonna come up roses slowly but
surely. Maybe I will look the other way as well, in regards to the perpetual war
factor, like hell.

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zonth_zonth's avatar

By zonth_zonth, March 5, 2011 at 6:40 pm Link to this comment

Detroit 20%, last I heard.

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By knute, March 5, 2011 at 3:25 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

A Bogus number, as is always reported in relation to unemployment. They continually revise how they come up with the figure to get what they want. The true figure is of course much higher.

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Fat Freddy's avatar

By Fat Freddy, March 5, 2011 at 11:26 am Link to this comment

Yes, well, technically, according to GDP, the recession has been over for 20 months.

Underemployment, a measure that combines part-time workers wanting full-time work with those who are unemployed, surged in February to 19.9%.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/gallup-reports-underemployment-surges-199-jobs-situation-deteriorates-bad-february-2010

and

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/about-jobs-improvement-under-president-obama

Now, shall we talk about inflation? How about those M2 numbers? Haven’t seen them? Well, the “Bernanke” has been a busy little boy. Got to keep those banks “solvent”.

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Leefeller's avatar

By Leefeller, March 5, 2011 at 11:21 am Link to this comment

My elations are in knowing our government can conjure up yet another lie!

Glad the Republicans did not extend unemployment benefits for all those slackers out there, see, it made them all get back to work!......Good Republicans!

This transparency thing is so damn blinding!

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Robespierre115's avatar

By Robespierre115, March 5, 2011 at 5:46 am Link to this comment

And of course “Liberal” loyalists will take 8.9% and claim Obama saved mankind.

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By Ptolemy Philopator, March 4, 2011 at 3:52 pm Link to this comment

Kudos to Mark Twain. The Department of Labors methodology is phony and doesn’t count all those people who are no longer collecting unemployment because their benefits have run out. These statistics don’t count the long term unemployed. The fact is that this so called recession is an old fashioned industrial lockout so that the financial elites can marshall even more of the world’s resources. It is certainly possible that the powers that be are going to juice up the economy in anticipation of the election. It’s all about fraud these days

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By lancemfoster, March 4, 2011 at 2:49 pm Link to this comment

Popularly attributed to Mark Twain: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned
lies, and statistics.”

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