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"WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's unemployment rate bolted above the psychologically important 6 percent level last month for the first time in five years -- and it's likely to go even higher in the months ahead, possibly throwing the economy into a tailspin as Americans pick a new president....A blizzard of pink slips propelled the jobless rate from 5.7 percent in July to 6.1 percent in August, the Labor Department reported Friday....So far this year, a staggering 605,000 jobs have vanished -- slightly less than the population of Alaska.

Economy: Two things need saying about Friday's jobs data showing marked deterioration in the U.S. economy. One, it's not as bad as it looks. And two, it might get worse if policymakers do nothing.Start with the first point. Yes, the unemployment rate surged to 6.1% in August from 5.7% in July and 5% at the end of 2007. And, yes, the U.S. shed 84,000 jobs for the month, bringing the year-to-date toll to 605,000. Hardly a stellar performance, and one that certainly points to worsening conditions. But it's also worth noting that 6.1% unemployment is pretty normal. That's right: Since...

So whats the deal? This is not fake, these are numbers, numbers dont lie. "Job losses were widespread at factories -- especially housing-related manufacturers and automakers -- as well as construction companies, retailers, mortgage brokers, real-estate firms, hotels and motels, and temporary-help firms, which are looked at as a barometer of demand for future hiring." I get all of that but it still happenned under our watch. What the he%% is J McCain talking talking about when he says that we'll make up the diff while one gets trained. Cmon FR lets continue to point out the obiviuos. I would...

Unemployment Rate Hits 5-Year High As Economy Continues to Shed Jobs By BRIAN BLACKSTONE September 5, 2008 9:27 a.m. WASHINGTON -- The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly jumped in August to a nearly five-year high as employment fell for an eighth-straight month, raising the risk of recession as households face a struggling labor market and high inflation. The data, which included a modest rise in wages, suggest Federal Reserve officials will hold interest rates steady when they meet later this month and at subsequent meetings through the end of the year. Nonfarm payrolls, which are calculated by a survey of establishments,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A surprising jump in the U.S. unemployment rate last month may partly reflect temporary emergency aid that encouraged more people to count themselves as unemployed, but this ought to fade when the program ends. The jobless rate surged to 6.1 percent in August from 5.7 percent the month before, the Labor Department said on Friday, underlining the weak state of the economy and suggesting a recession may be unavoidable. But a chunk of this deterioration stemmed from a 250,000 increase in the civilian labor force that some economists said looked suspicious. Employment fell by 342,000 people and...

Illinois employers eliminated a total of 9,700 jobs statewide during the month of July, state officials said today, pushing the Illinois unemployment rate leaped from 6.8 percent to 7.3 percent -- the state's highest jobless level in almost 15 years. The national unemployment rate was 5.6 percent.

Reuters gets the award for the most misleading headline of the day with its Aug 28 story making it seem as if unemployment has wildly increased in New York State -- even calling it a "crisis" -- when there was really only a small increase. The headline would cause the casual reader to assume that the world is falling apart concerning employment rates and on top of that the badly worded headline also feeds into the Bush-ruined-the-economy meme. And we know how Reuters is always looking to smear President Bush whenever it can. Further, Reuters cites the work of the...

California's unemployment rate in July continued its upward flight, rising to 7.3%, a four-tenths of a percentage point jump from its June level, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday. It was the worst unemployment showing since July 1996 when the Golden State was still recovering from a deep recession that began in the early 1990s.

MIDDLEBURY, Ind. — Pilgrim International officials have laid off 160 of their employees and temporarily ceased all operations, according to partner Dave Hoefer Sr. “We are in the process of negotiations with the bank. Right now we’re not running any production,” he said. According to Hoefer, officials at the Middlebury-based recreation vehicle manufacturer won’t know anything more of their situation until sometime next week. “The sad thing is the people, the families, everything affected. But we have to look at it all,” he said. “I am distressed to learn of the job losses in the last two days for employees...

Our economic system — the market economy or capitalism — is a system of consumers' supremacy. The customer is sovereign; he is, says a popular slogan, "always right." Businessmen are under the necessity of turning out what the consumers ask for and they must sell their wares at prices which the consumers can afford and are prepared to pay. A business operation is a manifest failure if the proceeds from the sales do not reimburse the businessman for all he has expended in producing the article. Thus the consumers in buying at a definite price determine also the height of...

Private employers added 9,000 jobs in July, according to a private report by ADP Employer Services released on Wednesday. In June, the private sector slashed 77,000, according to revised data. June was originally reported as 79,000 jobs lost. The median of estimates from economists surveyed by Reuters was for the ADP report to show a drop of 60,000 private-sector jobs in July. The 32 forecasts ranged widely from a decline of 110,000 to a fall of 4,000...

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Recently I saw two movies that attacked the controversial Wal-mart department store. A PBS documentary called Is Wal-Mart good for America? And Wal-Mart the high cost of low price an independent movie about Wal-mart and the Walton family. I also visited wakeupwalmart.com for more info this article is a refutation on most of the BS that appeared on the two documentaries. First of all we need to ask ourselves why "Wal-Mart is under ferocious attack by the left?" Wal-Mart delivers well on its promise of low prices to Americans. Being a resident of one of the poorest and liberal states...

Wachovia Corp, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, on Tuesday posted an $8.86 billion second-quarter loss, slashed its dividend and announced 6,350 job cuts after losses tied to mortgages soared. Its shares fell $1.67, or 12.7 percent, to $11.51 in premarket trading. The net loss for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank equaled $4.20 per share, and compared with a profit of $2.34 billion, or $1.22, a year earlier. Excluding items, the loss was $1.27 per share, compared with the average analyst estimate of $1.30, according to Reuters Estimates. "These bottom-line results are disappointing and unacceptable," Chairman Lanty Smith said in a statement....

Things wouldn't be so bad now if we had listened to Frank Field By Simon Heffer Last Updated: 12:01am BST 23/07/2008 Have your say Read comments When one talks to older politicians they often observe that their lives consist of cyclical re-runs of the same old film. After 15 years of boom, the cycles have become somewhat extended. Now, the impending bust brings back to our screens a rather scary old favourite: unemployment. Barely a day passes that some analyst doesn't pitch in with a projection for the additional numbers that will go on the dole in the next year...

All Things Considered, July 17, 2008 · A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez's family was built on cars. Her father worked at General Motors for 45 years before retiring. Her mother taught driver's education. Nunez and her six siblings grew up middle class. Things have changed considerably for this Ohio family. Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job. Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government...

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits posted its biggest drop in almost three years last week. But a Labor Department analyst cautioned against interpreting the decline as a sign of better days ahead in the economy. Seasonal adjustments are difficult in early July due to seasonal layoffs in automobile and other manufacturing industries, the analyst said, and an increase is likely next week. Indeed, continuing claims lasting more than one week hit a fresh four-and-a-half year high, according to the Labor Department report, an indication that it is taking the unemployed much longer to find...

WHEATON, Md. -- In another sign of the harsh toll being exacted by the economic downturn, the number of Americans unemployed for six months or more has risen sharply over the past year and is likely to increase even more. The number of people unemployed for at least 27 weeks has risen to 1.6 million -- up 37% in the past year. That is almost double the percentage increase for the overall unemployed, according to a Labor Department report released Thursday. More than 18% of the unemployed have been looking for work for more than half a year, compared with...

Michigan's May unemployment rate of 8.5% is the highest in the country, and it's not even close: The state with the next highest jobless rate is Rhode Island at 7.2%, more than a full percentage point below Michigan. And compared to South Dakota, the state with the lowest rate of 2.9%, Michigan's rate is a whopping 5.6% higher. And it's about to get even higher this summer. Reason? The minimum wage for adults will increase to $7.40 per hour in a week, "a move that has Michigan businesses shuddering," according to The Flint Journal. And those younger than 18 get...

Bush may have done a service to us all. The eight years gave us lay offs and unemployment not seen since the great depresion, wars and attrocities commited in the name of advancing american multi corporate agenda and white Christianity, we saw the rich get richer and the poor become even more poor, we heard slogans such as jobless recovery, strategery, modern economy, trickledown effect Ad nauseum. The values of Bush are the values of the capitalist system, another word for fascism. the eight years of Bush proves capitalism is a failed system. We see more debt, unemployment and 100...

Sen. Barack Obama shed new light on his economic plans for the country, saying he would rely on a heavy dose of government spending to spur growth, use the tax code to narrow the widening gap between winners and losers in the U.S. economy, and possibly back a reduction in corporate tax rates. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the Illinois Democrat said that he was trying to put together tax and spending policies that dealt with two challenges. One is the competition from rapidly growing developing countries, like India and China. The other: the U.S. becoming what...

- In Sweden that is. All the same, if various experts are right, the Nordic countries are not only the richest part of the world, but also global leaders in the domain of QUALITY of life. Therefore, living in this part of Stockholm is probably as good as life gets, or? The article: "The Stockholm suburb of Danderyd is the best municipality in which to live, according to a new ranking by the magazine Fokus. Lund and nearby Lomma in southern Sweden follow closely behind. Ljusnarsberg municipality in the Bergslagen region of central Sweden ended up in last place. The...

With the U.S. auto market worsening for Ford Motor Co. almost daily, managers told union officials Friday that the company will have to further reduce its factory work force in the coming months. The slumping U.S. economy has cut U.S. auto sales by 8 percent during the first five months of the year, but it's been a double hit on Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC as consumers shun their high-profit pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles for more fuel-efficient models as they cope with $4 per gallon gasoline. United Auto Workers union officials were told in a meeting...

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Friday called for higher payroll taxes on wage-earners making more than $250,000 annually, a step that would affect the wealthiest 3 percent of Americans. The presidential candidate told senior citizens in Ohio that it is unfair for middle-class earners to pay the Social Security tax "on every dime they make," while millionaires and billionaires pay it on only "a very small percentage of their income." The 6.2 percent payroll tax is now applied to all wages up to $102,000 a year, which covers the entire amount for most Americans. Under Obama's plan, the tax would...

Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries are definitely more "Socialist" than Hong Kong, Isle of Man and Bermuda, but especially those who claim the economic performance of the Nordic countries is evidence Socialism works ought to know that this part of the world is RAPIDLY developing into a POST-SOCIALIST economy - just like certain other parts of Europe with a much darker Socialist past like Poland, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovakia and many other proud nations. Nordic competence in the area of hard work and doing trade existed before 1917, before Karl Marx, before the British Empire, before...

WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain is just one of dozens of Republicans abandoning President Bush to join Democrats who want to extend unemployment payments for people whose benefits have run out. "We have to extend the unemployment benefits," McCain said Tuesday on CNBC. "We have to .... because we all know Americans are hurting, and hurting badly." McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, hasn't been shy about trying to separate himself from the unpopular Bush. And neither are a bucketful of Republicans in the House as they confront a vote this week on extending benefits for the longer-term jobless. The...

Despite a recent spike in the nation's unemployment rate, the danger that the economy has fallen into a "substantial downturn" appears to have waned, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday. Addressing a Fed conference in Chatham, Mass., on Monday night, Bernanke said a government report last week showing the unemployment rate rising from 5 percent in April to 5.5 percent in May — the biggest one-month jump in two decades — was "unwelcome." However, the Fed chief said other forces should "provide some offset to the headwinds that still face the economy." The Fed's powerful doses of interest rate...

In an attempt to further tarnish the reputation of the Bush Administration and Republicans in general...the liberal media ended the weekend with all sorts of stories citing the ::Cue the dramatic music please:: HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT SPIKE (in what would seem to have been the history of the free world)...or the last 3 1/2 years. These articles can be seen here, here,here, *sigh* here, and here, just to name a few. All these articles state the high-unemployment rates at the end of this last month and democrats across the country, including presumptive democratic nominee BarryO criticizing the Bush Administration...there's a shocker....

What the Media Didn’t Tell You About Friday’s Unemployment Spike By Jerry Bowyer It wasn’t Bush, it wasn’t greedy corporations, or free trade, or history’s most over-predicted recession. It was not the oil companies, income inequality, or the excesses of cowboy capitalism. None of these things caused the unemployment rate to jump a half a percentage point in one month. Ask yourself a few questions: Why did unemployment surge at a time when unemployment compensation claims are historically low? More to the point, how could unemployment spike this much without a coinciding spike in corporate lay-offs? The answer to all...

The leftwingnuts at Center for American Progress said: "The minimum wage increase will not harm our economy." "The minimum wage increase will not cause price inflation. In Arizona, for example, the total cost of the wage increases is equal to 0.08 percent of total sales. The average business can fully cover the cost of the minimum wage by increasing revenue by less than 0.1 percent." "The minimum wage increase will not destroy job growth. Between 1997 and 2003, small business employment increased by 9.4 percent in higher minimum wage states, compared to 6.6 percent in states at the federal level."

WASHINGTON - The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May — the biggest monthly rise since 1986 — as nervous employers cut 49,000 jobs. The latest snapshot of business conditions showed a deeply troubled economy, with dwindling job opportunities in a time of continuing hardship in the housing, credit and financial sectors. "It was ugly," said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. With employers worried about a sharp slowdown and their own prospects, they clamped down on hiring in May, said Friday's report from the Labor Department. The unemployment rate soared from 5 percent in April to 5.5...

I know, I should link more. I tend to forget that my readers don't know everything I know--that they haven't written a couple dozen stories about European disability and pension systems, growth rates, unemployment, immigration, and so forth... So sorry that I didn't provide links on my Sweden post about disability, unemployment, and so forth. I just sort of assumed that Sweden's amazing rates of disability, "true" unemployment rate that may top 20%, and so forth were common knowledge. They certainly aren't particularly controversial. But if there is anything less common than common sense, it's probably "common knowledge". Let me...

<p>Unemployment Rate Jumps to 5.5% As Economy Continues to Shed Jobs By BRIAN BLACKSTONE June 6, 2008 8:42 a.m.</p> <p>WASHINGTON -- The U.S. unemployment rate posted its sharpest one-month increase in 22 years last month, suggesting U.S. consumers already facing a housing slump and soaring gasoline prices now confront growing pressure from a weakening jobs market.</p>

Cannot post. Here is the link:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZ6VzqO8N1Ag&refer=home

"It's the economy, stupid," James Carville famously said during the 1992 campaign, when a young Bill Clinton was running against the other President Bush. The same could be said during this presidential campaign. The headlines are full of economic bad news -- mortgage foreclosures, the collapse of an investment bank, higher gas and food prices and lower home prices. Voters routinely list the economy as their chief concern, and consumer confidence has sunk to low levels. Yet at the same time, the economic numbers are not so bad. A recession is defined as two quarters of contraction. But we haven't...

Virginia’s unemployment rate fell 0.6 percentage point, from 3.9 percent in March to 3.3 percent in April. Employment increased mostly because of the increase in tourism jobs, construction work and the end of the strike...

What a Recession Looks Like Are we in a recession? Officially, that's up to a nonprofit group of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research to decide. While their declaration is based on facts and figures, we took a more "average joe" approach to determine whether we are already in the midst of the big "R." Our bloggers spied more than 20 new trends in everyday life that seem to say we are. Click through our gallery to see what they're seeing. (SLIDESHOW AT LINK)

They eat from the same dishes and sleep in the same beds, but they seem to be operating in two different economies. From last November through this April, American women aged 20 and up gained nearly 300,000 jobs, according to the household survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). At the same time, American men lost nearly 700,000 jobs. You might even say American men are in recession, and American women are not. What's going on? Simply put, men have the misfortune of being concentrated in the two sectors that are doing the worst: manufacturing and construction. Women are...

The number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits dropped much more than expected last week. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits fell to 365,000, a decline of 18,000 from the previous week. Economists had been looking for a much smaller decrease of around 5,000. Weekly jobless claims have been exceptionally volatile in recent weeks because of strike-related layoffs in the auto industry and an unusually early Easter, which has played havoc with the government's seasonal adjustment measurements. Many economists believe that a prolonged housing slump and severe credit crisis have pushed the economy into...

It’s an election year, and partisan acrimony has escalated. Democrats and Republicans portray themselves as the nation’s saviors against all the programmatic atrocities of the other side. Can we find a refuge of common-sense agreement amid this self-serving political din? Well, here’s a proposal for the economy: Enact a temporary extension of unemployment insurance from the standard 26 weeks to 39 weeks. The proposal’s virtue is precisely its modesty. Benefits have been extended in every recession except one since the 1950s. Although most unemployed usually find new jobs within the normal six months, the task becomes harder in a slump....

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers cut far fewer jobs in April than in recent months and the unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent, a better-than-expected showing ...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks futures pointed to a very positive open early Friday, after a government report painted an unexpected upbeat picture of the labor market. With less than an hour before the market open, S&P and Nasdaq futures were both in positive territory, with a comparison to fair value pointing to a slightly lower start for Wall Street. According to the Labor Department, there was a net loss of 20,000 jobs in April, less than the revised loss of 81,000 jobs in the March and lower than the net loss of 75,000 jobs forecast by economists surveyed by...

The nation's economy grew at a modest but better-then-expected pace last quarter, posting a 0.6 percent increase despite the continuing housing and credit problems plaguing many Americans.

The number of mass layoff events in March 2008 decreased by 101 from the prior month, while the number of associated initial claims decreased by 20,218 ... Over the month, mass layoff activity in manufacturing decreased by 47 events, and initial claims decreased by 2,825

The National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, one of the flagship programmes of the UPA government, has become operational throughout the country from First of April 2008. The NREG Act, notified on 7th September 2005, aims at better livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment, in a financial year, to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The choice of works suggested in the Act addresses causes of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation and soil erosion, so that the process of employment is...

Employers Slashed 80,000 Jobs in March Friday April 4, 10:10 am ET By Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer Employers Chopped 80,000 Jobs Last Month; Unemployment Rate Rose to 5.1 Percent WASHINGTON (AP) -- Employers buffeted by talk of recession slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses. At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the economy might already be shrinking. The new snapshot of the job market, released by the Labor Department Friday, underscored the damage that a...

US employers cut payrolls by a bigger-than-expected 80,000 in March, adding more evidence that a housing downturn and credit crisis have pushed the economy into a recession. It was the third monthly decline in a row and the biggest in five years, according to the Labor Department. Adding to the bleak picture, the department revised the first two months of the year's job losses to a total of 152,000 from a previous estimate of 85,000. The March unemployment rate jumped to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent, the highest since a matching rate in September 2005. The March job report was...

FLINT, Michigan -- Married couple Tim and Teri Anthony of Flint are struggling to stay on top of their bills. The day after American Axle went on strike, Tim Anthony, 56, was laid off from his job at General Motors Truck and Bus Assembly in Pontiac. No axles, no work for Anthony. "It has been very tough," said Teri Anthony, 54. "My husband has been looking at our bills, deciding who we can pay and who we can't. "We've had to use credit cards to buy groceries. Fortunately, we haven't had to borrow yet." About 3,600 UAW workers at five...

The underemployment rate is rising Don't be fooled by the relatively low 4.8% unemployment rate. Other measures, such as the number of people only working part-time, are a sign of recession. By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer April 2, 2008: 4:32 AM EDT Many of those looking for full-time jobs aren't showing up in the unemployment rate. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- An unemployment rate at 5% used to be called full employment. Today it's considered the sign of a recession. But when the Labor Department gives its March employment report this Friday, it's important to keep in mind that the...

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