Jobless Rate Highest Since Reagan Days
The U.S. unemployment rate has passed the psychological threshold of 10 percent for the first time since 1983, a couple of years into Ronald Reagan’s presidency when it reached 10.8 percent. It is also quite likely that it will go higher.
Economists say the unemployment rate could reach 10.5 percent next year because employers remain reluctant to hire.
October was the 22nd straight month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating back 70 years.
Nearly 16 million people can’t find jobs even though the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended. Persistently high unemployment could hurt the recovery by restraining consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy. That percentage is obviously much too high, as is the percentage of the economy held by the debt repackaging mills – read Wall Street and banks.
So, the news isn’t good despite some small rays of hope coming from the supposedly recovering automakers. The dollar continues to lose value, ostensibly to make U.S. products more attractive abroad, but in reality, because we continue printing money as if the national debt wasn’t an issue. The interest rates hovering at near zero percent might be attractive for certain borrowers, but totally counterproductive in the area of savings and secure and meaningful investments.
There seems to a slightly growing tendency to rebuild some of our former manufacturing might, following the example of Germany, which is a huge exporter, second only to China.
It would certainly be about time. After all, it has been a very long time, since we ceased to be a manufacturing giant, preferring to buy cheaper products elsewhere. It has also been a long time, since the importance of quality has been displaced by an ever-present quest to save 10 cents here and seven cents there.
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“Economists say the unemployment rate could reach 10.5 percent next year because employers remain reluctant to hire.”
Yes because they’re waiting to see what new taxes and fees Democrats are going to stick on them… VAT, Obamakare, Cap and Trade, the list goes on and on…
The unemployment numbers are bad, I agree. I believe that is a natural occurrence after the near financial collapse we had earlier this year. If we do not regain our status in the manufacturing industry, however, we will never fully recover.
Askcherlock, I fully agree. We have devolved in a few short years from a manufacturing and exporting powerhouse, to a country depending on financial crookery, housing starts and the success of Christmas shopping.
“After all, it has been a very long time, since we ceased to be a manufacturing giant, preferring to buy cheaper products elsewhere. It has also been a long time, since the importance of quality has been displaced by an ever-present quest to save 10 cents here and seven cents there.”
So, we should start making those cheaper products here? The t-shirt and shoe making has gone off-shore because U.S. productivity has instead turned to manufacturing value added products like semiconductors, jet engines, MRI machines, chlorine gas, heavy equipment, software, etc. Products made in the U.S. and exported are far higher in the value chain than those imported from China. It is true that manufacturing employment has declined but inversely manufacturing productivity has risen: This means that technology and innovation has been able to do more with less.
I don’t know about you but I would rather be third on the exporter list and produce things like software, jet planes, and farm tractors than be the number one exporter making chotskies.
Vulcanhammer, too bad that you are not trying to compare the U.S. to the number 2 exporter, rather than to number 1.
Mercedes Benz, BMW, Porsche, VW and a whole bunch of other things are not even remotely related to “chotskies”.
And Lockheed Martin, Google, General Electric, John Deere, General Motors, and Eli Lilly may not have fancy commercials shot on slick roads (except for GM, of course) but their market caps are just as impressive (or larger) as all those car companies you mentioned.
Let’s compare the U.S. to number two–Germany. As I mentioned before, comparing raw export numbers says nothing about manufacturing productivity which has been rising faster in the U.S. than Germany and Japan since 1990 and which lends to higher wages and better jobs.
So, the contention that the U.S. has somehow fallen from being an “exporting powerhouse” is a Lou Dobbsian exaggeration.
OK, OK, could you maybe explain why our national debt is so huge?