Friday, March 06, 2009

Bad Numbers

U.S. Unemployment Rate Jumps to 8.1 Percent - washingtonpost.com: "The nation's unemployment climbed above 8 percent last month and the economy shed 651,000 jobs, according to government data released this morning, further evidence of the deepening recession that has devastated the stock market and home prices and triggered the largest government recovery effort since the Great Depression..."

It's still not the Great Depression when unemployment was in the 25% range and bank failures were in the tens of thousands.

2 comments:

billy pilgrim said...

i think 8% is really low.

throw in people forced to work part time and non participants in the labor force and it would be way north of 10.

Bob Harrison said...

I agree. I suspect the real number is 15%, with perhaps 1% who want no work. Like all stats for the past twenty years, they are probably jiggered around for political purposes.