Another reason to vote for Obama

[rn79870]

Nah, one of the principles of economics is that the entire country feels the sting... Remember, we're a "world economy", and there's very little intra-state differences.

Those stats mean nada without corresponding data on population increase in the past 12 months...

How is it that the increase in population is relevant when we're talking about percentage increases? It there are 100 people in the country with 5% unemployment or 100 billion people in the country with the same 5 percent, and the percentage increases by 1 percent, how does that not reflect a rise in overall unemployment? True, the number of unemployed differ, but the overall tread is obvious.

[AZhitman]

You may hate unions but they are still necessary if you're a pathetic hand-wringing whiner that can't navigate the big bad world on your own.

Fixed those typos for ya. Turn the lights on in your office, it only costs pennies a day.

[mtcookson]

You may hate unions but they are still necessary.

They're only necessary when you want to bring a company down.

[AZhitman]

How is it that the increase in population is relevant when we're talking about percentage increases?

Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 1.6 million

If 1.6 million MORE people became "work-eligible" over the 365 days before the previous census and did not find employment, then those people ARE relevant.

A 1% dip is negligible - Hell, you can probably attribute 100% of that to the decline in new homebuilding projects.

Smocky, the great difference between us and the EU is you can drive to any state in the contiguous US and call it home. Come to AZ, we'll get you employed.

[smockers83]

Ah, economics of population...I don't think I want to bore you guys with that.

As for moving to AZ, thanks, but I don't think I want to. I've been thinking Denver-Boulder--its much more bearable in terms of weather for me and I need the seasons, in particular, winter.

[C-Kwik]

Wow. Never expected that from you, Chano...

I'm curious why this was unexpected...

You may hate unions but they are still necessary.

The underlying problem in your example is not that they are trying to take away pensions. Its that large corporations overpay their execs. Sure, a union may succeed in preventing them from cutting into the workers' pensions, but ultimately, the money is going to come from somewhere so long as the board is still trying to pay the execs what they want to, then there are always going to be these types of problems. In some cases, the business itself can slow or shut down, which is bad for everyone.

I'll be much more supportive of unions if/when they do less harm than good....

[rn79870]

A 1% dip is negligible - Hell, you can probably attribute 100% of that to the decline in new homebuilding projects.

GW is another one who finds nothing wrong with the economy.

[mtcookson]

For some reason that made me realize all of a sudden that we're actually making more money this year than in most previous years. We used to make a lot more a long time ago but the business has changed since then.

[smockers83]

GW is another one who finds nothing wrong with the economy.

I would say that there was something seriously wrong with the economy if more things were bad. If we get above 6% unemployment with very few job openings or even if we stay at our current rate without many job openings, we would have a serious problem. Or if we were seeing unemployment rise rapidly. It is impossible to get our employment rate to 98%, even 97% would be hard, and some would even say at those rates we would be over employed. What the problem is with the economy is energy costs, mainly oil. It has driven up prices in a ton of stuff besides gasoline. Since gas has gotten so high, people have to transfer more of their budget towards gas, which puts a damper on spending in other areas of the economy. Add to that rising prices in those other areas and that eats further into one's budget. So, if we can get our energy prices under control, our economy will come back to life and even reduction in gas prices will instill confidence into the economy, as slightly evidenced in the past month.

[heliochrome85]

So, if we can get our energy prices under control, our economy will come back to life and even reduction in gas prices will instill confidence into the economy, as slightly evidenced in the past month.

how exactly does someone do this? Since these commodities are priced in USD, and the USD continues to fall against other major world curriencies, how can we reduce the price of Oil without adjusting the USD's value. It makes economic sense to devalue the dollar. China has been devaluing the Yuan for years in order to drive growth in their industries, by luring companies to build in china vs other south eastern asian nations. Look at how many companies are building plants in the US thanks to the low exchange rates. Its phenominal. So you either have to cut off these incentives to companies, or continue to allow the dollar to slide and as a result, allow the oil to stay expensive. I dont know what I would do, but I can say that im glad Im not at the wheel.

[ishkabibble]

If 1.6 million MORE people became "work-eligible" over the 365 days before the previous census and did not find employment, then those people ARE relevant.

Show us that the statisticians are not factoring in population growth rates in their figures.

[96Qowner]

The basic concepts involved in identifying the employed and unemployed are quite simple:

* People with jobs are employed. * People who are jobless, looking for jobs, and available for work are unemployed. * People who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force.

http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm

"Unemployed" are people actively looking for work. When people "not in the workforce" start looking for a job, the unemployment rate goes up.

[Soravia]

Everyone support higher minimum wage. But that only increases inflation and make the companies hire illegal workers.

What should be is that ALL workers should get health and other benefits so that they don't have to spend all their income on meds.

And there should be more ABOVE minimum wage jobs. Minimum wage is for highschool kids. No adults should be making life with it.

You can't expect ABOVE minimum wage for Wal-Mart and Burger King. That's the nature of their business. We need manufacturing jobs and farming jobs to pay good money to a lot of people.

Too bad, those got shipped to China and illegal immigrants are working at farms in Iowa.

[srellim234]

Everyone support higher minimum wage. ....

Care to document some support for that blanket statement? Last time I checked many conservatives were not in favor of any minimum wage, let alone an increase in it. Many independents are not in favor of it, either.

http://www.ncsl.org/statevote/minwage_news1.htm

Strong support for minimum wage, but hardly unanimous.

[mtcookson]

We need manufacturing jobs and farming jobs to pay good money to a lot of people.

The problem isn't that there aren't any of those types of jobs, its that the people that need them aren't in an area with those types of jobs. Wichita, KS has a huge need for workers at the aircraft manufacturing plants and are paying top dollar for those jobs (I've heard in the area of $20 an hour). You would likely need some sort of training for some of the jobs but that's a pretty decent paycheck, especially for Kansas.

[AZhitman]

Show us that the statisticians are not factoring in population growth rates in their figures.

Or, those using statistics to back up their point can show us that they are.

Burden of proof, brother. I'm a professional question-asker and skeptic.