unemployment

H/T to Sharon ABC News

Employers appear to be laying off workers again as the economic recovery weakens. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits reached the half-million mark last week for the first time since November.

It was the third straight week that first-time jobless claims rose. The upward trend suggests the private sector may report a net loss of jobs in August for the first time this year.

Initial claims rose by 12,000 last week to 500,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.  More..

According to its website, the I Need a Freakin Job movement was created for the millions of Americans affected by the current unemployment crisis. The website has a list of grievances, which focus on the core beliefs that our government is broken and that the “posers” (elected officials who pretend they work for the people) need to be ejected from office. Those who belong to INAFJ are generally younger than the Tea Partiers, but they share some of the same ideas. Many of them sound like the type of people that once belonged to the Democratic Party, which by the way died two years ago yesterday. (Do you remember? I do.)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its monthly jobs report for May touting an increase of 290,000 jobs and announcing a rise in unemployment to 9.9 percent as more people re-enter the labor market looking for work. The MSM grabbed on to the latest job report by spinning it, and the Associated Press was a big factor in the added spin since many news outlets just copy and paste AP stories. The Associated Press reacted immediately to the jobs announcement by emphasizing the good news:

“The economy got what it needed in April: A burst of hiring that added a net 290,000 jobs, the biggest monthly total in four years. It showed employers are gaining confidence as the recovery takes deeper root.

 

But people who had given up on finding jobs are gaining confidence, too, and are now looking for work. That's why the unemployment rate rose from 9.7 percent to 9.9 percent and will likely go higher.

 

Especially encouraging was that the job gains came largely from private employers, the backbone of the economy. They boosted payrolls by a surprisingly strong 231,000, the most since March 2006.

 

The new jobs, generated by sectors across the economy, are the first sign that the recovery is adding significant numbers of new jobs -- even if not enough to absorb the influx of jobseekers….”

 

I don’t want to rain on the AP’s euphoria or anyone’s parade, but let’s remember that Obama once pledged the creation of four million new jobs by the end of 2010. Julia Seymour writing for the Business & Media Institute tries to set the record straight:

The biggest problem with the current White House is its tendency to obfuscate; its partiality to half-truths and blatant whoppers. It’s time for Americans to deal with the reality we face. Go ahead, google: “Obama, lies."  I did, and 13, 700, 000 results magically appeared.

Early in 2008, Snopes.com posted a list succinctly named “50 Obama Lies”. Now, there’s even a website named Obama Lies. The first part of this year had people spinning about Obamacare and Healthcare lies. In January many people were offended that Obama’s promise to broadcast health care debate on C-Span didn’t materialize. Others resented that political kickbacks were part of the legislative process when Obama had promised he would do everything aboveboard and by the book. (They didn’t like that the book appears to be Machiavelli’s The Prince.)  Opposingviews.com discussed "The Hidden Lies in Obama’s Health Care Plan", along with many other posters across the blogosphere.

The examiner.com website has an interesting story by Dave Gibson. He explored the fact that in 2009 the Department of Homeland Security issued 1,130,818 new Green Cards to foreign nationals, thereby allowing them to work legally in the US. The nations receiving the most cards were: Mexico (164,920); China (64,238); the Philippines(60,029); and India (57,304). Janet Napolitano during her first year in office oversaw the fourth highest number of Green Cards issued in one year.

After uncovering the Green Card giveaway, Gibson’s article explores the issue of jobs and unemployment in the United States. He looks at the hard unemployment numbers, not just the number of Americans receiving unemployment checks. Gibson also investigated unemployment during the Great Depression for comparison; it’s there that his article gets really interesting:

We are fast approaching the end of President Barack Obama’s first year in office.  The banks, Wall Street, and the military-industrial complex have looted the US Treasury, and our leaders have created a multi-trillion dollar debt that they placed on the shoulders of American taxpayers. There is also news that the Democrats want to create a new Amnesty Bill, so that illegal immigrants can fill the jobs that "Americans don’t want" in an economy where we wonder if those jobs still exist. In short, under President Obama's leadership (with Democrats in control of both the Senate and the House), if things have changed, it's for the worse. 

Yesterday, at the National Press Club, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka pointed out that tough economic times call for “political courage.” In an opening salvo lobbed at lawmakers, Trumka shared that the courage necessary for that economic salvation of the country and its citizens wasn’t clearly evident in American leadership:

“Too many people in Washington seem to think that now that we have bailed out the banks, everything will be okay."

Though it may not seem like it, we're living in a golden age that's about to come to an end. This is the Golden Age of healthcare, the best in the world. Maybe the longest recession since WWII is coming to an end but it'll take years to get back to where we once were in terms of jobs and personal wealth.

This is indeed a great golden age in many respects but only in comparison with the future in store for us, thanks to this president and this Congress. During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Obama said, "America is the greatest country in the world and together, we can change it!" Now, we have a clear idea what he meant.

The current House and Senate healthcare reform bills now before Congress amount to massive tax increases and do nothing to reduce costs. The main reason the public ever wanted healthcare reform was lower costs. Why, then, is any effort to reduce costs blocked by the Democrats? These bills are the opposite of what the people want because they actually would cause an increase in costs and deficits, according to the CBO. There would a great shortage of doctors, there would be rationing of care, and a big increase in inconvenience. Healthcare as we know it today would devolve, resulting in higher death rates and misery.

I've been spending a lot of time lately reading up on the economy and reassessing my expectations for the stock market. I've also discussed my findings with a government economist who's in agreement with my understanding of what's going on. Suffice it to say, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better and we haven't seen a bottom in the stock market yet.