Tent City
In the week ending July 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 565,000, a decrease of 52,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 617,000.
The 4-week moving average was 606,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 616,000 – US Dept. of Labor.
The above is nothing like the rosy picture reported in the media. The Center for Labor Market Studies (CLMS) in Boston says US unemployment is now 18.2%, counting the old-fashioned way.
The Great Depression was 25%.
On July 19th, Bloomberg reported, “A government report last week showed that employers cut 467,000 jobs in June.”
One of the best kept secrets of unemployment is that the time worked per worker fell 6.9% from a year earlier, dropping to 33 hours a week.
Wage earnings have fallen at an annual rate of 1.6% annual rate over the last three months. This is wage deflation, pulling US wages down to those of some foreign countries.
Some of the US pay cuts are disguised. Over 238,000 state workers in California are now working three days less a month without pay, and variants of this are happening in 22 states.
The total number of Americans who are not working full-time but ought to be is actually about 22 million, or 15.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This tallies somewhat with the 18.2% figure given above – which would mean 25 million unemployed Americans.
You don’t have to watch the stock market, or listen to the media about the state of the economy – just look at the unemployment figures, and the growing number of unemployed Americans.
Meanwhile, AIG is set to pass out $450 million in bonuses.
Recent Comments