Unemployment hit 10.8% when I was out of work with Reagan in charge

NNN0LHI

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Sat Apr-10-10 06:41 AM
Original message

Unemployment hit 10.8% when I was out of work with Reagan in charge

I think after my initial 26 weeks of unemployment ran out I got one 13 week extension for a total of 39 weeks and that was it.

Little different today by comparison.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/will-congress-extend-unem_n_516905.html

Will Congress Extend Unemployment Benefits Beyond 99 Weeks?

Rush Limbaugh was on every day calling us unemployed people welfare recipients. I was an out of work autoworker and my neighbors were buying imported cars.

The bad old days.

Don

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/will-congress-extend-unem_n_516905.html

Unemployment Hits 10.8%, Presidential Approval Drops to 35%
by dasheight

Unemployment Hits 10.8%, Presidential Approval Drops to 35% Sat Feb 27, 2010 at 12:37:16 PM PDT

Yeah.

It's 1983.

And the president is Ronald Reagan.

Reagan came into office with initial job approval ratings as high as 60% by mid-March 1981. On March 30, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley and the resulting concern and sympathy lifted his ratings to 68% by May.

But even as Reagan recovered from his wounds, the public's concerns about the bad economy didn't, and his ratings began to fall as each month went by.

By the end of 1981, Reagan's job approval rating had drifted down to 49%.

In 1982, the public's view of the economy remained sour, and his ratings during 1982 fell even further, hitting the 40% range, ending his second year at 41%. In the '82 midterm elections, the Republicans lost 28 seats in the House. The cause? The economy and the voter's anger over it.

The unemployment rate in Reagan's second year - a full year after his tax cuts for the top 1% - rose to a post WW2 high of 10.8%. According to Gallup, only one third approved of the way he was handling the economy, with the deficit exploding due to his tax cuts benefiting the wealthy.

At the beginning of '83, his approval rating fell to a low of 35%.

The economy, and Reagan's approval, only started to improve in his third year.

01/1981 - Unemployment rate 7.5% .... Reagan sworn in.
02/1981 - 7.4%
03/1981 - 7.4%
04/1981 - 7.2%
05/1981 - 7.5%
06/1981 - 7.5%
07/1981 - 7.2%
08/1981 - 7.4% *Reagan cuts taxes for top 1% & says unemployment will DROP to 6.9%.
09/1981 - 7.6%
10/1981 - 7.9%
11/1981 - 8.3%
12/1981 - 8.5%
01/1982 - 8.6%
02/1982 - 8.9%
03/1982 - 9.0%
04/1982 - 9.3%
05/1982 - 9.4%
06/1982 - 9.6%
07/1982 - 9.8%
08/1982 - 9.8%
09/1982 - 10.1%
10/1982 - 10.4%
11/1982 - 10.8%

For some contrast:

At the start of President Obama's second year, the unemployment rate has so far fallen from 10% to 9.7%, and in the BEA/U.S. Department of Commerce's now revised estimate for GDP growth in the 4th quarter of 2009, released on Friday, the number went up from the initial estimate of 5.7% to 5.9% - the best growth in over six years.

In addition, as some may have already seen, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office last week released its study on the impact of the Recovery Act so far:

The stimulus created up to 2.1 million jobs in the last three months of 2009.

It boosted the economy by up to 3.5 percent.

It lowered the unemployment rate by up to 2.1 percent during that period.