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June 18, 2009
Unemployment Number Dropped Because Benefits Ran Out
-- by Dave Johnson
The "good" news in today's unemployment report was that the number of "continuing claims" dropped. The bad news is that the reason this number dropped because so many people's unemployment benefits are running out.
In the coming months you will hear more and more "good" news like this - and it will be sold as good news. But this number really means more and more people are getting into ever worse conditions because the economy is not providing jobs and the government is no longer helping. After all, regular people are not "too big to fail."
Yes,more people using up their unemployment benefits means more people who can't pay their mortgages, rent, car payments, credit card bills, or go shopping, etc. On top of this several states are running out of money and will start laying people off.. . . Government figures, in fact, show the proportion of recipients who used up their jobless benefits in May topped 49 percent, a monthly record.[. . .] The drop in continuing claims means more home foreclosures and credit card defaults are coming because 49% of those who were receiving benefits now have no money coming in at all.
But the "recession" is over, right? I don't think so. I think we have to go through some hard times to break the "stock market always goes up" kind of thinking that is keeping people from finding real solutions to real problems.
Posted by Dave Johnson at June 18, 2009 5:56 PM
Comments
The unemployment rate in May of 2008, a mere 13 months ago was 5.2% and FALLING.
This market crashed in October of 2008 anticipating the coming chaos. In wall street jargon, the market 'discounted' or priced in the future value of the Obama Administration policy. For ALL of 2008, the Democrats were thrilled to highlight the recession. So exactly what has been their contribution in the last 18 months to actually improve anything?
Posted by: Mace ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seeingtheforest.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 19, 2009 8:36 PM
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