For Unemployed, Wait for New Work Grows Longer

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Ms. Quitiaquez, 50, is one of about 3.6 million American workers who ran out of unemployment insurance benefits last year, the most in at least three decades, said Isaac Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and advocacy group that supports extending unemployment benefits.

Even as overall unemployment dropped last year, the share of unemployed workers who have been jobless for more than six months - the point at which most state benefits run out - has remained historically high. As of November, about 1.8 million, or one in five, unemployed workers were jobless for more than six months, compared with 1.1 million when the recession officially ended in November 2001.

Since the start of the recession in March 2001, the average length of unemployment has risen to 20 weeks from 13.

"Usually at this point in a recovery, job creation is skyrocketing, but so far that hasn't happened," said Kevin A. Hassett, economic director at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a conservative organization. "It's not a partisan issue, it's a fact. The labor market is worse than in the typical recovery."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/national/09jobless.html?hp&ex=1105246800&en=81e31d35b55beb8c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[WMliberal]

1. add to that number those who are only partially employed

like moi.
Partially employed does not pay the bills.

[Skittles]

10. or under-employed

many people I know are under-employed

[WMliberal]

16. that's what I meant.

whatever.

I just know what I'm doing isn't paying the bills and better jobs just aren't to be had.

[Florida_Geek]

2. but but but

this was on TODAY's Tampa Tribune Front PAGE

http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGBMMNSDP3E.html

Jobs Growth `Solid' In 2004

Jobs Growth `Solid' In 2004
By PETER G. GOSSELIN
Los Angeles Times


WASHINGTON - U.S. employers added a net 157,000 jobs in December, bringing the positions gained by the economy in 2004 to 2.2 million - its best showing since 1999, the government said Friday.

The nation's unemployment rate remained at 5.4 percent, where it has hovered since mid-2004, the Labor Department said. In addition to December's numbers, department officials made upward revisions totaling 31,000 to the job totals of October and November.

``The good news is that the jobless recovery is reliably behind us,'' said Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that focuses on labor issues. ``Most industries are expanding, though there are signs that employers have not fully abandoned their cautious hiring practices.''

..more at the Tampa Tri.

[Skittles]

11. pure propaganda tripe

absolutely sickening

[superconnected]

21. remeber part time jobs are now counted as full time

We gained lots of part time christmas work in december.

The real unemployment statistic that would use pre sept 2003 reporting method of fulltime labor still puts us over 10 percent unemployment.

[VegasWolf]

23. A: Because it's the Tampa Trib, I grew up with that piece of shit

newspaper, and B. the 156,000 number is pathetic, economists
were expecting about 300,000. As soon as the 156,000 number
was announced, the dollar fell further against the euro.

[frylock]

3. i've been unemployed for 7 months now..

and have been looking for work for almost 9 months. My UI benefits ran dry just before Christmas. This reported job growth BS is a myth. I spend 2-3 hours every day looking on at least 6 different job boards.

[mhr]

4. Unemployed 55 Months - The Following Article Explains Why

Bush's Missing 10.2 Million Jobs

Employment Picture Still Dreary
Comstock Funds
January 06, 2005

Whatever the December payroll employment report shows tomorrow, it can’t come close to making a dent in the serious jobs shortfall of the current economic expansion. Here’s why. The NBER officially designated November 2001 as the bottom of the last recession, meaning that the November report marked the third anniversary of the upturn. During this 36-month period total non-farm payroll employment increased only 0.9%, a number that pales in comparison to past cycles. Over the last seven economic expansions the average rise for a comparable period was 8.7%. If that were the case on the current cycle there would have been 10.2 million more jobs than the total number reported for November, and the average monthly increase for the 36-month period would have been 316,000 per month. Instead the average monthly rise was a paltry 33,000, and even over the past 12 months when employment picked up somewhat, the average monthly increase came to only 171,000, a far cry from the typical cyclical increase. In fact only three months of the 36 showed increases of more than 300,000 jobs.

Snip ......

http://www.comstockfunds.com/screenprint.cfm?newsletterid=1155

[frylock]

6. every time i start to feel sorry for myself..

someone in your position comes along, and really puts things in perspective. I couldn't even begin to imagine being out of work for almost 5 years. I wish you the best, my friend.

[mhr]

9. Yes It Is A Personal Nightmare - The Fact Is The Economy

Is not creating enough jobs to accommodate all those that would like to work.

That is what the linked article is all about.

[superconnected]

18. the job creation thing is a lie

Remember the Bush administration changed their reporting in Sept of 2003. Now part time jobs are reported as full time. If you work 2 hours a week, you are counted as having a full time job. This makes past unemployment rates unapplicable to current ones. They can't be compared since they are using totally different stats. In 2003 when the gov changed their reporting method, they fist said we had lost over 100k jobs that quarter, pulled the number back, announced that by their new reporting we had gained 10's of thousands of jobs.

[superconnected]

22. the funny thing about this is in nov 2001

they were still denying there was a recession. Now and then they would say there "might" be.

[BrendaStarr]

20. What the jobs reports don't point out and corporate news under-reports

Is that 150,000 new jobs are needed every month just to keep up with the new job seekers (maturing teens, graduates, and immigrants minus retirees)

So now that Bush has nearly completed 4 years we can just multiply that by 48 and get 7.2 million jobs lost just by that method so though the corporate news media touts how close Bush is to making up the jobs lost directly in his term, some newspapers will slip in the fact about the 150,000 extra monthly debt, but never add up the numbers for people. The other 7.2 million jobs lost are just ghosts to the Bush people and MSN.

Also, last Spring New York Post's John Crudele pointed out that the BLS news modelling installed in Jan 2004 (just in time for the election year) would create lots of imaginary jobs under the expansion of the time. An economist with a blog agreed.

By fall Crudele ws proclaiming that the conditions then were causing the modeling to under-report new jobs (he does work for a News Corp publication after all) but he had pointed out earlier that many of the new jobs were self employment "consulting businesses" undertaken by smart people trying to set something up for themselves because business has little use for smart employees anymore (well his description was more derogoratory, but as a self employed person --for 20 years--I reject it.)

But the truth about self employment is that you really don't have to be able to make any money to "have a job".

Here is a post on another forum with link to usenet copy of Crudele's original work and to the economist's blog (if indeed he hasn't been bullied into taking it down.

I assume this was reported on here last spring, but this part of my post is just in case someone missed it then or forgot.

[The Zanti Regent]

5. Who needs work when they have Jesus?

I got family members in long term unemployment, no job prospects, can't pay bills, feed kids, pay the rent, got evicted. But, they voted for the man their preacher said is God's Prophet for the 21st Century, Awol Mc Cokehead!

Their answer when I ask what they will do?

"GAWD IS TESTING ME" and they get deeper into bible study.

This country is lost.

[renaissanceguy]

8. Just like the tsunami,

unemployment is the result of being a bad Christian, according to the fundamentalists.

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.15032164
http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.14741193

[genieroze]

12. GAWD IS TESTING ME? No the religious Reich is screwing you. eom

[Trajan]

7. FUCK the AEI ....

As if they give one shit how american citizens are faring in life ....

It is THEY who have set up the economic dominos to fall in their direction, and away from us ....

THe AEI/PNAC axis has done its utter best to destroy the american middle class: they have done so with distinction and efficiency ...

[WildClarySage]

13. I'm at 6 mos. unemployed, and the only jobs in my small town

are McJobs that pay less than my childcare costs would be. Their job creation figures are bullcrap.

[tanyev]

14. No, no, no

that can't be right. This economy is smokin' hot. That's what His Royal Fraudulency keeps telling us.

[struggle4progress]

15. kick

[mockingbich]

17. There are plenty of jobs for criminal illegal aliens

The corporations are finding all kinds of work for imported 3rd world migrants at poverty wages with no govenment protection. The American citizen is now competing with a shadow workforce that big business can exploit like 19th century slave labor. Nothing will unravel the civil & social progress of the 20th century faster than the current uncontrolled flood of illegal labor. Corporations are using this "shadow ecomony" to destroy the AMerican middle class and ignore human rights.

Illegal Immigration = Corporate Slave Trade

The elitist corporate ruling class is turning America into slave labor camp. How else could they compete with China???

[area51]

19. "Usually at this point in a recovery, job creation is skyrocketing,"

Maybe it's because we haven't had a frickin' recovery.

[Nikia]

24. My best friend recently got a job after 8 months unemployed

He had been layed off from a $16/hour skilled job. Over 100 resumes and applications later, he has a part time job cooking at a diner making less than half that. The few interviews for the good jobs told him that hundreds of people had applied for the particuliar job. Some of the jobs themselves required multiple interviews as well as a variety of testing.
Another sign of the poor job market is that we've had temps who only come in occaisionally for over a year, wanting a full time job. They still don't have full time jobs.

[earth mom]

25. Oh yes, there are plenty of jobs...for the working poor that is

:eyes: