The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think

Wall Street Journal ^ | July 14, 2009 | Mortimer Zuckerman

[reaganaut1]

The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad.

[...]

Here are 10 reasons we are in even more trouble than the 9.5% unemployment rate indicates:

- June's total assumed 185,000 people at work who probably were not. The government could not identify them; it made an assumption about trends. [...]

- More companies are asking employees to take unpaid leave. These people don't count on the unemployment roll.

- No fewer than 1.4 million people wanted or were available for work in the last 12 months but were not counted. Why? Because they hadn't searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.

- The number of workers taking part-time jobs due to the slack economy, a kind of stealth underemployment, has doubled in this recession to about nine million, or 5.8% of the work force. [...]

- The average work week for rank-and-file employees in the private sector, roughly 80% of the work force, slipped to 33 hours. [...]

- The average length of official unemployment increased to 24.5 weeks, the longest since government began tracking this data in 1948. [...]

- The average worker saw no wage gains in June, with average compensation running flat at $18.53 an hour.

- The goods producing sector is losing the most jobs -- 223,000 in the last report alone.

- The prospects for job creation are equally distressing. [...]

[mikelets456]

Bingo! Our business is actually “decent”....not as good as the last 5 years, but it does not warrant 20% cuts. I’m in sales and look at the books daily...we are making money and not even CLOSE to losing money.

The thing that ticks me off, is 3 of the 4 owners of my company voted for this Spit head! They way i look at it, they should take the cut for their stupidity!

[American in Israel]

Well, there is no telling what will happen, if we go to a European standard, which they are trying to do, there will be debtor prisons. Not the free ride bankruptcy that was modeled after the biblical jubilee year.

In short, I guess I agree with your wife. Better to be poor than a prisoner.

Sounds like you are in a pretty good place to me.
Blessings.

PS wheat and rice are very cheap, and practically store themselves...

[o2bfree]

Congress needs to pay hourly, not by salary.

Senators and reps should have to clock in when they arrive at the capital, and clock out when they leave. Shouldn’t get a penny for time they’re on TV or campaigning for the next office. No money for wasted time. Not one dime.

Shouldn’t get paid for travel time, just time they are in their official offices or on the floor of the congress.

[lowbridge]

No! dont look there! Look over here! The CIA held (gasp) secrets!

[2ndDivisionVet]

One of the good things about sales: I only get a reduction in pay if I don’t sell something. Everyone wants a salaried position because of the “security” that it entails. Well, now you see what kind of security that was...
Don’t get me wrong, when I worked for state government, we had to take furloughs when the budget was tight, but someone forgot to tell my creditors to cut me some slack, so I know what it feels like.