[Marxism-Thaxis] unemployment
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn02132009.html Every president since Reagan, particularly Clinton, has jimmied the unemployment criteria to produce an undercount. The actual number for the two months is nearer one and three quarter million. The actual total unemployment rate, according to statistician John Williams, by pre-Reagan criteria, rose to 18 per cent in January, from 17.5 per cent in December. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Unemployment
The radical economist who taught me used the rule of thumb that the real unemployment rate is about double what the BLS reports.CB That's what I said on LBO T some years ago, and wow did a certain individual throw a steaming hot hissy fit over that. Who is your radical economist who taught you? CJ^CB: Greg Tarpinian and others ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Unemployment
The radical economist who taught me used the rule of thumb that the real unemployment rate is about double what the BLS reports. CB ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Unemployment
The radical economist who taught me used the rule of thumb that the real unemployment rate is about double what the BLS reports.CB That's what I said on LBO T some years ago, and wow did a certain individual throw a steaming hot hissy fit over that. Who is your radical economist who taught you? CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Unemployment
I should think that unemployment is tracked fairly accurately within the parameters that the government sets to track it; however, it is important to remember that this concept of unemployment then is not really an indicator of unemployment, under-employment and lack of sufficient-paying employment for the working class of a given OECD country. Rather, it is an attempt to sample information from a sample of the population in order to get a set of data that is supposed to fall under a pre-defined concept the government calls 'unemployment'. As it is usually discussed on LBO T and PEN L (Charles B take note), it is discussed in terms of how the moderators prefer it. They want to use the government measure of this concept of unemployment as a leading or lagging indicator of the state of the economy (which at least since last July has been described by the controlling metaphor, 'a very sick patient' needing 'infusions' of liquidity, which are the 'lifeblood' of the financial system which oversees (who gets and who is denied credit in ) the capitalist political economy. See the following two links and articles, only excerpted below: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=402 AN ORGANIZATION that works to highlight the discrepancy between the official unemployment rate and what is often called hidden unemployment is the National Jobs For All Coalition (NJFAC), which posts unemployment data each month after the BLS data are made public. In October (the latest figures available at this writing), the official U.S. unemployment rate was 6.0 percent or 8.8 million individuals. This marked a slight decrease from June's numbers, when the official unemployment statistic reached a more than nine-year high of 6.4 percent or 9.4 million individuals. Although the decrease may mark the beginning of an economic turnaround, growth remains sluggish in many sectors. To calculate hidden unemployment, the coalition includes BLS figures for those working part time because they can't find full-time employment. In October, 4.8 million Americans fell into that category. In addition, it also reports the number of people who want jobs but who are not included in the official statistic because they do not qualify as actively looking. That figure amounted to 4.9 million individuals in October. Combining the official unemployment rate with these additional figures provides a more realistic picture of the U.S. economy: it increases the number of unemployed from 6.0 percent to 12.2 percent or 18.5 million persons for October, according to the coalition (the BLS doesn't calculate that figure although it provides the components to do so). We get an even better picture of the very large number of Americans facing economic hardship if we add in those working full time yet earning poverty level wages. Based on Census Bureau data for the year 2000, 16.8 percent of those working fulltime, or 16.9 million individuals, earn less than the official poverty rate for a four- person family. In other words, about one in seven men and one in four women, employed full time all year, earned less than poverty level wages for a family of four. In addition, the official unemployment figure excludes the incarcerated population from the labor force. During the 1980s and 1990s, the number of individuals held in federal and state prisons more than tripled, increasing from about 320,000 in 1980 to 1.3 million in 2000. And between 1980 and 2000 the total jail and prison population together increased from 503,586 to 1,937,482-a 284.7 percent increase, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics. The official unemployment rate has another flaw as well, namely that it is subject to the same under-coverage problems as all surveys are- and to any undercounting problems associated with the census from which CPS population controls are derived. Although efforts are made to correct for under-coverage, members of certain groups are more likely than others to be left out of census surveys. For instance, young black males are the most likely to be under- covered in the monthly CPS survey used to calculate the official unemployment rate. But they are not the only group inaccurately represented in the survey. Adjustments are made to correct for this under-coverage, yet the assumption is that members of the cohort left out of the survey resemble members of the cohort who responded to the survey. There is no way for statisticians at the Census and BLS to know for certain whether this is true, according to Ed Robison, a BLS statistician. Although he can't prove it one way or the other, Robison's assumption is that some of the under-covered groups experience at least slightly higher rates of unemployment than their covered counterparts. RATHER THAN developing a more broadly encompassing measure of unemployment, the BLS actually has narrowed the definition of those counted as officially unemployed over the years. It is interesting to note first how the BLS defines
[Marxism-Thaxis] Unemployment systems crash as jobless numbers hit 26-year high
Unemployment systems crash as jobless numbers hit 26-year high Archive - Daily Online Author: John Wojcik People's Weekly World Newspaper, 01/07/09 14:53 Jobless benefit filing systems all over the country are crashing this week as an unprecedented wave of tens of thousands of newly unemployed Americans scrambles to survive. The states are saying that their web sites are going down because they are already overloaded with data on the 4.5 million now collecting benefits, the highest number in 26 years. In many states where the systems have not yet crashed the newly unemployed are left to hold on the phone lines for hours or are cut off with “all lines are busy” messages. On Jan. 6 systems in New York, North Carolina and Ohio were shut down completely. New York’s phone and Internet claims system started to fail on Jan. 5 and was out of service completely on Jan. 6. It was restored a day later but workers there still report waiting hours to get help. “Regardless of when you call, be prepared to wait and just hang on. Try not to get frustrated,” is the advice offered in a telephone interview with Howard Cosgrove, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. Unemployment statistics that the government will release Jan. 9 are expected to show that 500,000 more people lost their jobs in December, which could push the official national jobless rate over 7 percent. November’s 6.7 percent figure was already the highest in 15 years. For people in the rapidly growing ranks of the unemployed the crashing of the systems turns what is already a harrowing experience into a certified nightmare. Tom McAvey, 54, was laid off Jan. 2 from the custodial staff in a Brooklyn, N.Y., elementary school. “I waited until Monday to file my claim,” he told the World. “Two of us at the school were laid off. We had no idea it was coming. What a way to start the new Yyar. I’m two week’s salary away from the poorhouse. My wife lost her job at Bear Stearns and is still out. I don’t know how I’m going to pay the bills. One of my daughters is in a Catholic high school – there’s the tuition.” McAvey has difficulty mustering any sympathy for state officials who say the systems crash because of the unprecedented number of jobless applicants. “I don’t buy it. The government has computers that handle much more information like the ones that keep track of all the taxes they are owed. If they weren’t laying off their own workers they could maintain better systems and plan for these emergencies. Layoffs and budget cuts are to blame – it's not the fault of the unemployed.” An unemployed worker in Rhode Island emphasized how, even before the crashes, filing for benefits in her state constituted a virtual nightmare. Her state, along with Michigan, tops the nation with the highest unemployment rates. “They have eliminated the old unemployment offices, she said. They have laid off state employees. You can’t go anywhere to talk to a person. If I was lucky I got a recording that told me to call back later. This went on for days.” The woman described for the World how she had to research the location of an actual office where she could find a live person. “But even there, I was told to fill out a form with a message and that in a few days someone would call me back. I was lucky to be home at the time they did call back. They were helpful – it was a worker trying to do a good job, but there just aren’t enough of them. “Between the trips back and forth, the 75-minute waits on hold – once, out of desperation I held on for two hours – it’s a struggle. It’s a lot of time lost that could be spent on the Internet or going out to look for a job,” she said. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Unemployment stories
On the dole Sacramento News Review - Sacramento,CA,USA By Seth Sandronsky On a late November afternoon, Elk Grove resident Melanie Nisewanger, 21, stopped by the state Employment Development Department on ... http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=886871 Seth Sandronsky http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Archive?author=3348 This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
