Friday, March 6, 2009

Unemployment 8.1%; Broader Unemployment to 14.8%



Source: BLS

4 comments:

  1. Is it reasonable to say that the 14.8% figure is comparable to the 25% unemployment quoted for the great depression?

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  2. And if they are comparable, are we on a similar trend as the great depression where we might arrive at 25% unemployment?

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  3. The 14.8% is lower than the comparable 25% figure.

    http://www.mint.com/blog/finance-core/a-visual-guide-to-the-financial-crisis-unemployment-rates/
    http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data

    The difference between today and the Great Depression has been the response by the Fed and Treasury and the fact that we've outsourced a lot of manufacturing (the sector hurt much worse than services) to emerging market countries. For these reasons, it is my opinion that we will not get to that 25% rate, though 18% (projected by Shadow Stats) is already awfully close.

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  4. It's safe to say that things could've gotten much worse, so today's recession isn't really as bad as everyone thinks it is. I'm not grateful about it, but I'm just thankfull that it's not "The Great Depression: Part 2" like what most people are being made to believe right now.

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