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January Unemployment Rate Hits 7.6 Percent: What You Need to Know

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it will never end stupid american!!!!!!!!!!!! china will own u!!!!

kim sung foo of KS 10:42AM December 10, 2009

So Josh knows there is a recession yet he wants to build a million dollar library in Roslyn. He gets Joe Hoeffel to put up 350,000 then the rest goes on the back of his constituents!!! The funding and maintanence of the Abington Library is in excess of 2 million dollars!!!! Cant the kids from Roslyn take the bus, it goes by his proposed library 4 time a day!!!! Josh is all about the Pork projects and his voters are going to pay the price!!! He wants his foothold in Roslyn at any cost to the taxpayers!!!! Shame on you Josh Shapiro, Abington deserves better!!!!

jc of PA 2:46PM May 13, 2009

I fear we need a depression to bring a new New Deal and create a sustainable economy rather than patching a bad one. I hope I'm wrong.
There've been studies of those "desert survival" exercises that the decisions made by a group are always more successful than decisions made by individuals. We are in a situation in which survival requires the group to negotiate and make decisions together in order to make the best ones for all. Only government has the power to determine what types of stimulus will be most effective and where best to invest money for greatest result.
We've got to get the bankers out of the process though. Their drive for quick, unsustainable profit is largely responsible for this mess, yet staff swaps between the likes of Goldman Sachs and the administration are constant. They are biased and in the way of the future.
Because of job-seeker burnout, we do have an unemployment rate significantly in excess of 8.4%. Those whose benefits have expired can continue to seek work through the state and be counted in the statistics, but with burnout and no unemployment check to encourage them, there is little reason for them to continue working with the state bureaucracy. Federal funding is available for unemployment extensions, but not all states have attempted to meet the requirements necessary to obtain it!
But if one is going to be unemployed or underemployed and poor, why not be a student and be poor? Call center and textile jobs are never returning and the auto industry has spent 35 years demonstrating it is no longer competitive, so people need to take advantage of this opportunity to retrain themselves for the jobs and industries of the future.
We need nurses and medical techs - vote, buy American and go back to school!

Ernie of DE of DE 6:54PM April 06, 2009

Can anybody tell how long will this recession continue?

abc of CA 3:35PM March 10, 2009

Add to the 7.6 % the following to obtain a real picture of who is capable of working and who is not working - so who is being supported by taxpayers or freeloading off family and friends or are homeless.
1. 3% for those whose unemployment insurance claims expired and are thus no longer counted as being unemployed.
2. 2% for those who have been unemployed in excess on one year and have just given up looking.
3. 5% for those who remain or return to school on financial aid or loans because they could not find a job using their college degrees.
Now we have a truer picture of "real" unemployment that is closer to 17.6%. If we want to add to that those persons who are only employed part-time at menial jobs because not suitable full time positions are hiring - and yes, the hundreds of thousands of homeless people and mentally ill who wander in the shadows of urban areas... the more accurate unemployment rate would approach 30%. That means 2 workers are supporting 1 unemployed person... which doesn't account for all the retired people with only fixed Social Security incomes or single moms who are on welfare due to minor children. Add those into the mix and we are closer to 50% unemployment.
Why is it so rare for our government to be totally transparent and honest with the people? Obvious answer is voters would probably throw all the incumbents out of office.

Tony Lee of CA 6:29PM March 04, 2009

<3

caressa of NV 2:58PM February 24, 2009

KENDALL is the BESttt!
better than the resttt!
school is boring!
i would rather be snoring!
talkin to boys are funn
but sometimes you way a tonn!

lynn_<3 of CA 2:51PM February 24, 2009

MY NAME IS MEGAN AND I'M SO
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Megan of NC 1:46PM February 24, 2009

The stimulus plan represents our last best hope. If it fails we cannot muster a plan of this scope as the world will be in a much worse spot and even more risk averse. Social breakdown will begin to occur as more people scramble to get what they can for themselves and their families, reactionary political rhetoric will dominate the media and the inevitable downward spiral will get reinforced.
We are like a wave beginning to collapse, we are only now at the point where the wave breaks into pieces having spent all its energy, it begins to drop, but for a moment it is suspended in air. We know it can go no higher, for it has no energy to sustain it, it will drop. All the stimulus package can do is modify and lessen that drop and give us time to prepare and hopefully build industries (alt energy/green energy) to provide a new wave to lift us once again.
If we fail to provide sufficient and massive enough stimulus to hold back the crushing wave, then our old economy will be crushed and will take decades to rebuild.
We don't really get a second chance here, and every day we hesitate is one more day of gravity pushing down the crushing wave that threatens to destroy us.
If we do nothing, we have failed, and soon the U.S. will ressemble Argentina, our economy will sputter and fail over and over, and those of money will leave for brighter shores.
We are at a tipping point, we can either try to build a safety net for existing problems while creating markets to nurture and build new industry, or we can give everybody tax cuts which are useless if we have no jobs, and no demand for our businesses.
Its time to pull together, to help each other, rather than backbiting and partisan politics. The polarization of american politics is about to truly destroy this nation, is there no one left who cares about America?

Jane Quatam of CO 2:25PM February 07, 2009

Consumers should ignore the commentary admonishing them of spreading “weakness,” and “lacking confidence.”
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2009/02/obama-watch-consumers-and-learn.html
Stay the course.

James Raider of WA 3:21AM February 07, 2009