Unemployment in February Increases to 9%, Up From 8.6%; Underemployment Increases to 19%

Mike Shedlock

The latest Gallup survey finds U.S. Unemployment Increases in Mid-February

Mike Shedlock

Mike Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for Sitka Pacific Capital Management.

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52 Comments So Far

dhellew3 Wrote: Feb 19, 2012 3:00 PM

Here's how Obama math works. In any recession some jobs never go away so at some point fewer people start getting unemployment. As the checks run out and they drop off the unemployment rolls, and since less people start getting checks the number of people getting checks starts to shrink. Without more downward changes in the economy the number of unemployed getting checks will shrink until there is little or no unemployment. In the event of an improved economy Obama math will show even less unemployed. Projecting the Obama chart forward, 1-month before election unemployment will be zero or lower.
This is how Obama measures unemployment. It has nothing to do with the number of unemployed, only the number that are getting checks.

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JaneNY Wrote: Feb 19, 2012 2:17 AM

The new breed of Republicans in Congress care more about defeating Obama and protecting the wealthy than they do about the US economy and the jobless, not to mention global warming, the environment, etc. Dynamic scoring is a pipe dream and a subterfuge for any actual useful action other than giving gifts to corporations and the 1% that are now glorified as the job creators. Anything that doesn't fit into their scheme is categorized as class warfare. The media in general and Fox News at its most extreme are aiding and abetting the radical right by misleading voters into accepting the illusory promise of supply side economics, i.e. tax cuts for the rich are the solution to reduce the deficit and create jobs.

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JaneNY Wrote: Feb 19, 2012 2:19 AM

How about some facts:

All other industrialized countries have some form of universal government run health care. They get better care as measured by all 16 of the bottom line public health statistics, and they do it at 40% of the cost per person. If our system were as efficient, we would save over $1.5 TRILLION each year, and the deficit would soon vanish.

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JaneNY Wrote: Feb 19, 2012 2:19 AM

One of the many myths propagated by conservatives is that our corporate taxes are high compared to other countries. It is true that our nominal rate of 35% is high, but because of loopholes, this figure is meaningless. A good parameter to look at is total corporate taxes actually paid divided by GDP because neither of these figures can be fudged by corporations. If you look at developed countries, you will see that Norway has the highest value at 12.5%. The US is tied with Turkey for the lowest at 1.8%.

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USMC2351 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 9:47 PM

Yo Baggers! Was George S. Patton a racist by saying this about African-American soldiers: "Individually they were good soldiers, but I expressed my belief at the time, and have never found the necessity of changing it, that a colored soldier cannot think fast enough to fight in armor." ---- His autobiography called 'War As I Knew It', pg 60.

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Joe 145 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 8:33 PM

Our government allocates a larger percentage of our economy than every before. And we expect it to be MORE productive? Not exactly the economic concept upon which this country was built.

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duggy2 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 8:15 PM

there are dozens of issues..all are important to one degree or another, especially to those most directly affected. One issue, debt, affects us all either directly or indirectly...the national debt is our debt...not the government's...you and i pay endlessly on the public debt...15 trillion and growing like kudzu !

Criminal bankstards bribed the third private "central" bank into parasitic existence in1913. The criminal syndicate,aka the fed, was deceitfully named the federal reserve bank association to fool the then public into thinking this private counterfeiting cartel was, in fact, part of the u s government. The IRS was also foisted on our forbears to collect taxes to pay for this wealth confiscation fiasco..

The fed counterfeits

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USMC2351 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 7:52 PM

Republican social engineering in Iraq cost the lives 4,800 Americans, left 30,000 wounded American soldiers and up to 200,000 American soldiers with head trauma and complications from brain concussions.

You feign indifference because you had your precious Bush tax cut for it all. Again, war is not free.

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JaneNY Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 6:34 PM

We can have a discussion about the Vietnam war and its after-effects.

Many Republicans also say something like this, "The North Vietnamese were brutal to the people they conquered once we left. How many people died at the hands of the conquerors?"

No doubt about that. You can add in several million more from Cambodia who died in the 'Killing Fields.'

I met some 'boat people' while working in 1982. One guy was from Haiphong in North Vietnam (the number one B-52 target) He said that he feared 'going to school' more than the American bombing. That's why he fled and ended up in the USA.

What was the alternative in 1973? Keep half a million American personnel there and continue to pay those costs, forever?

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FinalRac Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 6:26 PM

Well, we have all seen these two figures; one from Gallup and one from the CBO. But, ......not in the MSM . So no one believes them now. Nope. Too busy watching a funeral and going to new flicks. After all, Bama has cured diseases now and the Pub want everybody to be a Catholic, according to the MSM. And apparently , voters believe this tripe. Gallup had Bama yesterday at 43% approval but no one else did so the MSM did not report that either. Nope. Bama is on a roll whether facts show it or not. And the Pubs, well they are haters, wife beaters, homophobes. That's the news brother.

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loadstar Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 3:03 PM

http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20120217/OPINION01/202170311/Four-years-debt-bomb-still-needs-defusing?odyssey=nav|head

The Obama plan would still add $6.7 trillion in deficits over the next decade, with the debt-to-GDP ratio creeping up to about 77 percent through 2022. Beyond that, long-term figures buried deep inside the budget show the debt would shoot up again after 2022 and just keep going, driven by an aging population and the escalating cost of Social Security and health care.

By comparison, credible proposals from Obama's own deficit-reduction commission and by the Bipartisan Policy Center in 2010 both aimed at reducing the debt to 60 percent of GDP and keeping it headed down. Obama's plan does not even begin to do...

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loadstar Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 3:05 PM

that. Nor, for that matter, does it fulfill his 2009 promise to halve the deficit by the end of his first term.

But the reason the president's budget doesn't fix the longer-term problem is that for all its spending cuts and revenue increases, it relies on gimmicks and avoids some problems instead of tackling them.

Most glaringly, Obama takes credit for about $850 billion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were paid for with borrowed money in the first place. These aren't "savings," notes the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: "When you finish college, you don't suddenly have thousands of dollars a year to spend elsewhere — in fact, you have to find a way to pay back your loans."

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The Obama Timeline author Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 5:01 PM

Counting money "saved" from the ending of war operations is absurd. It is like a family that bought a new car for $25,000 in 2011 saying they will "save" $250,000 over the next 10 years by not buying another car until 2023.

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Pat299 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 3:02 PM

The Congressional Budget Office spills the beans:

“The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014. The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work; if those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent. Compounding the problem of high...

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loadstar Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 2:56 PM

Barack Obama's Budget to Nowhere--

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/barack-obamas-budget-nowhere-180114958.html

In a near complete repudiation of his own Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction Commission, President Obama unveiled his election year budget projecting a $900 billion deficit in Fiscal Year 2013. Recall that the Simpson-Bowles Commission called for fundamental tax reform that would increase revenues by lowering marginal tax rates and doing away with an array of tax preferences along with reforming our major entitlement programs. In contrast President Obama's budget raises marginal tax rates and is practically silent on reforming entitlements. It is truly a budget to nowhere and because deficits remain extraordinarily high for a...

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loadstar Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 2:56 PM

... decade increasing our national debt from $16 trillion to $26 trillion; it is certainly not built to last.

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bibleman KJV Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 12:35 PM

Well one thing we know--the trolls have took the bait hook, line,and sinker. They will vote for Obama even while standing in a soup line.

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Blair31 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 11:50 AM

Not according to the Obummer spin machine.

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renny4 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 9:52 AM

Unemployment is really 11% in general and 16.5% for minorities. Gas just hit $4 a gallon in CA and will be $5 by summer. If people can vote the o back into office based on those numbers, they must be insane.

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gwharpo Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 11:53 AM

Of course they're insane. They voted for him once.

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Larue4 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 11:58 AM

I repent !!!! I listened to the wrong people!!!! I actually voted for this abomination!!!!

I personally apologize to everybody.

In order to correct this, I will campaign for Anybody but Obama.

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gwharpo Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 4:05 PM

A few million more like you and maybe we can get rid of Lucifer and start the rebuilding process.

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ApolloSpeaks18 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 9:48 AM

NO WAY JOSE!

Even if true no way that the highly politicized BLS, which added 200,000 non-existent jobs to the economy in January, is going to report a 9% jobless rate next month. BLS is in bed with Obama and (as long as the economy holds up) it will cook the books to show a slow but steady improvement in job creation leading up to Election Day-when the rate will be under 8%.

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renny4 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 10:09 AM

Every tv and radio news break is leading with "--and with the economy improving and unemployment under 9%"--you'd think it was a great script written in the sky. The only way to fight it is call the radio station, write the newspaper, email the tv station, and never give up, never surrender.

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ApolloSpeaks18 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 11:50 AM

Amen!

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The Obama Timeline author Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 5:09 PM

If all 13 million unemployed Americans give up looking for work and go on welfare, Obama can claim that he got the unemployment rate down to zero.

Don't think he won't try it...

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loadstar Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 9:34 AM

Unemployment is highest among the unskilled and low-skilled...guess who has 8-10 million of those jobs? ILLEGAL aliens. This is one of the many "hidden costs" of so-called "cheap" ILLEGAL alien labor. Some construction workers are drawing 99 weeks of unemployment because ILLEGAL Mexicans snagged their jobs.

The state of Mexifornia ALONE spends $10.5 BILLION a year supporting its ILLEGALS per Cong. Gary Miller-- schooling, H/C, penal costs, welfare. The state's total annual fiscal shortfall is just under $20 billion, so more than half is attributable to ILLEGAL aliens!

Does that STILL sound like "cheap" labor folks?!

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Thomas3090 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 10:27 AM

thing is, it is cheap for those that hire them, not cheap for us taxpayers !
but the employers don't care.

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Luny Tune Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 10:58 AM

The lie in the first paragraph is that those construction workers would rather take unemployment than take a job that is below their dignity, or less than union wages. There is no way that an employer would purposely lay off a citizen so they can hire an illegal. Those illegals are working for a non-union shop paying a lower wage than a union worker will accept.

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Larue4 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 12:00 PM

The hell they wouldn't!!! Happens all the time!!!! They love cheap illegal labor, no benefits no SSI, no unemployment, FICA, FUTA, etc. etc.

Unfortunately, that is the only way some unscrupulous business owners stay alfoat.

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loadstar Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 12:39 PM

How many posts would you like to see from those in the construction business who have been HAMMERED by cheaper competitors hiring Mexicans?

Or posts from workers who have been displaced by ILLEGALS?

Your screenname is apropos!

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loadstar Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 12:40 PM

Well expressed!

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Vieteravet Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 12:47 PM

Looney Tune you're wrong. A couple months ago I was in a Mickey D's in Peoria,AZ. A young fellow started talking to me about a contractor who was not re-hiring citizens but replacing them with illegals. Citizens were getting 16.00 per hour and tsi contractor was paying illegals 9.00. That's a fact!

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Greg1084 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 8:13 AM

The only thing I know is that we can't trust the government numbers, no matter who is in office. The government bureaucrats have their own agendas.

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BradR Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 9:38 AM

Truer words have never been spoken

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Esther46 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 2:19 AM

They are 'playing' with the numbers. Our unemployment figures are much higher than they will admit.

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BradR Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 8:35 AM

They always play with these numbers. And, I'm not sure but if this latest tax cut deal does include dropping 20 weeks of unemployment compensation, the unemployment rate will DROP as the millions that drop off U.C. will no longer be counted

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renny4 Wrote: Feb 18, 2012 9:55 AM

Yes. With over a million jobs destroyed and no longer counted and 100s of 1000s out of work so long they don't report to unemploy. offices, the stats are artificially improved. That does not change the fact that millions are out of work and may never work again under an o admin.

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Unemployment in February Increases to 9%, Up From 8.6%; Underemployment Increases to 19%

Mike Shedlock

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