Unemployment Now Worse than During Great Depression

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28259.htm

June 06, 2011 "AlterNet" -- Despite the Republican rhetoric of "jobs jobs jobs," the country is stunningly lacking them. We knew it was bad, but the latest US Unemployment Report, released Friday, proves that we are in the worst slump since the 1930s. This puts it in perspective:

About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months - a higher percentage than during the Great Depression...

Here's another problem: more than 1 million of the long-term unemployed have run out of unemployment benefits, leaving them without the money to get new training, buy new clothes, or even get to job interviews.

If you need a visual, here's a terrifying chart from Business Insider. And for another perspective, The New Republic has published an illuminating piece comparing the onset of the Great Depression to the political circumstances we face now:

More at the link --

[iwishiwas]

1. what jobs there are tend to be lower paying with no benefits.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[OhioChick]

6. I've seen comments like that here, too.

What a load of BS. Would anyone be saying that if junior were still in office?

[sufrommich]

3. No,it's not. The unemployment rate during the height of the

depression was somewhere around 25%. We're not even close.

[Donnachaidh]

5. they also tallied the numbers quite differently

They didn't pick and choose groups to tally in order to keep the numbers down.

[sufrommich]

7. Oh bullshit. Look around you,are 1 in 4 adults out of work? Jesus,

[Donnachaidh]

10. YES.

One out of four adults UNemployed.

Jesus had nothing to do with it. But it sure looks like he may have to step in to fix it -- because Washington gave to banks, and businesses -- but not the actual VOTERS.

[sufrommich]

12. 1 in 4 adults are not unemployed. That is bullshit. nt

[dionysus]

13. no shit. buy hey, facts don't matter i guess.

[closeupready]

11. Of five people off the top of my head who lost their jobs since 2008, NONE of them is now working.

One did briefly find a job, but lost it about seven months ago, and is still unemployed.

[pinqy]

16. Do some research, please

There were no calculations of unemployed during the depression except for the decenial census and a post card census in 1936. They had no set definition.

As for current, no groups are "picked and chosen." The definition has been the same since 1967 (one minor change relating to waiting to start work). The people surveyed define their own status.

[lonestarnot]

8. Who counted anyone off the rolls?

[frazzled]

4. That's just misleading

By the time of Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933, the unemployment rate hovered close to twenty-five percent. Fluctuating during the 1930s, it never fell below 14.3% until 1941.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief1.htm


From an estimated annual rate of 3.3 percent during 1923-29, the unemployment rate rose to a peak of about 25 percent in 1933. The economy reached its trough in 1933; but although unemployment had reached its peak, economic recovery was slow, hesitant, and far from complete. As shown below, the unemployment rate was still nearly 15 percent in 1940.

Year Unemployment rate
1923-29 3.3
1930 8.9
1931 15.9
1932 23.6
1933 24.9
1934 21.7
1935 20.1
1936 17.0
1937 14.3
1938 19.0
1939 17.2
1940 14.6
1941 9.9
1942 4.7

http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20030124ar03p1.htm




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

[lonestarnot]

9. How did they calculate back then? Were people off the rolls counted?

[pinqy]

15. They didn't calculate it at all

There were NO regular measures of unemployment until the 1940's.

The official unmeployment numbers from the 20's and 30's were calculated in 1948 based on guesswork.

And you do realize that current measures don't even ask about Unemployment Insurance benefits. There are no "rolls" and it's irrelevant to the calculations.

[Igel]

14. Yes, unemployment lasts longer.

This was pointed out pretty much every time the federal unemployment spending bills were passed, as though having extended federal unemployment benefits and the lengthened time on unemployment was somehow causal. (It may be, I don't know, but they were simply noting a one-time correlation. "They" were conservatives.)

During the Depression unemployment was worse but there was more turnover. You'd be unemployed for 4-5 months and get a job, often one that was pre-existing. That person would have quit or been fired, only to go to a different job, taking over after somebody was quit or fired. The result was that you could have far higher unemployment and more job churning.

The churning was due to a lot of causes--employers hiring and laying off, people quitting and going to other jobs, people being fired. It was easier to fire and lay off people, there was far less job security and people didn't "own" their jobs. There were more unskilled jobs around, too, so it was easier to do this. Now there's a lot less churning: It's harder to fire and once laid off you tend to have some sort of property rights to a job. Jobs tend also to be more specialized. Mostly it seems that people are sticking with their jobs, being more risk averse than before; and more people are on unemployment and staying there for as long as they can because they don't need to settle quite yet for that burger-flipping or floor-sweeping job.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. Older double Master Degree holders are competing with high schoolers for summer jobs at McDonalds

[lonestarnot]

18. GOP jobs plan!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. when I said "older" I meant 40ish

[lonestarnot]

20. GOP early retirement plan. Hamburgers.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

21. ding ding ding!