Falsifying unemployment numbers
Most of us know someone or many people who have been out of work for 2 years or more now. That group called the 99ers, who has lost their UE benefits or will in the coming weeks fall off the radar and are not counted. Once your benefits are gone, you no longer are a statistic in the system.
Based on the latest Work Force Development figures, our Town has a unemployment rate of 6.1%, lower than most but not the lowest, like Weston at 4.9%. An educated guess would be around 3 to 4 thousand in Town are collecting now and is my guess the total amount of people unemployed could be 5 to 6 thousand or more. Some 300,000 or so in this state are registered as unemployed, which in reality could be as high as half a million people who have fallen off the radar.
While retail sales were up, sales on the web were up, some say up as much as 5% over last year, there is little joy in HooVille when so many are still out of work, struggling to keep their homes and their kids fed and warm.
And while the foreclosure rate continues to climb, big companies continue to lay off people, huge tax breaks given to companies who promise to create jobs, the Legislature who was supposed to help find ways to encourage job growth in the State, never meet once in two years.
Corporate greed, the self interested voter, a political system owned by big business, trade deals that take jobs from Americans are all to blame. And the under reporting of the unemployed in this State and Country are the signs of a government trying to con us all into thinking everything is going to be fine.
It's not fine for the 99ers and all who want jobs.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 10:39 AM
12 Comments
12 Comments:
Are you saying us 99ers are not included in the number of unemployed in the state? If that is the case, then we are in a lot more trouble work wise than we think!
The under and un employed are being ignored by our state and federal government. No one gives a damm. They only care about the people who are getting money from the federal govenment for unemployment benefits. Once that money runs out for you, then you become a nonentity in the eyes of our government. Welcome to the world of the formerly working middle class, which has now become the homeless, hungry class. What does that say about our fine country?
The 99ers are the people least likely to be able to find a job, so does that not make them the most likely to need some sort of help? They are usually the older employee, the one with lots and lots of experience. Use to be that lots of experience got you the job. Now a resume with lots of experience prevents you from even getting an interview because it says “older worker”. Well, I am only 54 yrs old, with many, many good years of work still in me. Too young to retire, can’t collect social security for another 13 yrs, but can’t get a job because I am over 50. I mean I can not get any job, not even jobs paying $10/hr. My unemployment ran out at the end of October. My wife got sick from working so many hours and worrying about the bills, so now she is out of work also. We have absolutely no income coming in. Do you have any idea at all of what that means? No money for food, to pay the mortgage, or to keep the oil tank full, or the phone on, or the lights on. No health insurance. Not eligible for food stamps because we own our house, which is bull, the bank owns our house, not us. What do you think is going to happen to people like us? I can tell you our government sure as hell does not give a damm about the fact we are going to be cold, hungry and homeless very, very soon.
Falsifying numbers is a pretty serious charge, makes it sound like they are intentionally misleading the John Q. Public about the state of our economy. Our government would never mislead us. Ha, ha, ha. If you believe our government is above lying to us, then send me your number, I have some stock to sell you in my new company.
99ers are off the grid as soon as the bennies run out. Past 99ers are not counted at all in anyone's unemployment numbers.
Don't forget the 144 BILLION dollars in compensation paid to employees of the 25 largest financial institutions last year. Or the 50 BILLION dollars being spent to rebuild Iraq. Or the BILLIONS in campaign donations raised in 2010.
Nothing we can do to change the minds of those who control the purse, job creation or how data is recorded. They will fudge it for political reasons and self interest. When in fact, it's the lowest rung who does the voting and is the one mostly effected.
More accurate unemployment numbers MAY hurt the market, but it MAY also light a fire under a ineffective two party system who plays along with the duping of America.
Jim are you really saying that the numbers we see for the unemployed do NOT include the people who have run out of unemployment benefits? In light of all those bailout and payout dollars you mention, how can we as a nation be allowing this to happen on our watch, and yes, it is our watch, yours, and mine. We can not rely on politicians to do what is right, they have proven they almost never do what it truly right. Instead, they do what benefits them, or benefits their contributors. Highly unlikely that Joe Smoe who has been out of work for 99 weeks is going to be spending what little money he has donating to the campaign of the guy running for Senate or Congress in his state. That means, as far as that politician is concerned, Joe Some has no value, and is not worth any effort on his part, so therefor, no senator or congressman is going to fight for unemployment for that guy. It is wrong and it is unethical, but it is the truth. Those of us who are holding on still, with a decent job and a little money in the bank, we are the ones who need to be rattling the cages of our politicians, at both the state and the federal level. State reps and senators can not extend unemployment benefits, but they have the ear of those people in DC who can. So lets rattle the cages of Spilka, Sanacandro, and Walsh, and make them hear that we are not going to let our neighbors and friends go into the dark night of unemployment ending without raising our voices to support them. Someone, somewhere, has got to listen to us. If enough of us scream loud enough, maybe they will hear us sooner instead of later. Send letters, send email, call the offices of Markey, Brown, Kerry and anyone else who will listen. Let them know that those of us who can still afford to contribute to their campaigns are going to stand with those less fortunate who can not, and that means there are an awful lot of us standing together. Bombard their offices with requests that something be done about these 99ers benefits expiring, and say a prayer that they listen.
The people of this country need to raise their voices about this unjustice. If I needed unemployment to survice last month, why the hell don’t you think I need it this month? We can not allow the government to turn their back on those of us who are looking every single day for a job and not finding one. I read the other day that many think the unemployment rate will stay above 9% right through 2011. If that 9% does not include those who have fallen off the unemployment rolls, then we are probably talking about a rate closer to 15%. That is an awful lot of families going hungry. Why is there not a louder out cry from our citizens about this? We send money to other countries to help feed the hungry, what about taking care of our own?
Since when did being unable to find a job in an economy like this one make you a second class citizen? Seems like in the eyes of the government of the good old U S of A, that is exactly what it means.
Just another example of our government lying to us. If you are reporting the number of unemployed people, it should be all the people looking for jobs. If you are reporting the number of people collecting unemployment checks, that is a different number. I am betting that Jim is right, they are misleading us with these figures intentionally. But how would we know that if we did not see that information here? Come to think of it, how did you find that out Jim?
Many in the economic world have stated this for more than a year. The WSJ has had excellent information on this subject for a while.
And the media have given us the hard facts about job creation and lay offs.
One major airline ran an ad to hire 1,000 flight attendants last month and got 100,000 applicants.
Lets wait and see this months unemployment rate percentage... if it doesn't go up by huge numbers... as we know it should with millions of 99ers dropping off....then something is radically wrong in the reporting.
They will never tell us the truth about how many people are actually out of work because if they do, then they will have an uprising on their hands about the bailout of business, tax cuts for the wealthy, when so many of the middle class are now the poor and homeless. This country has failed us miserable in the last 10 years, by having a system that allowed this crash to happen, and then by not supporting those hurt in the crash. We need to take a long hard look at our politicians, our governing process, and our laws.
On a different note here, curious about where you stand on this Save Our Schools stuff. Chasen wrote a pretty absurd letter in the MWD yesterday. I think the guy must be enjoying a little too much of your favorite substance. Seriously where does he get off saying that some people in town should pay more than others? And if he says that is a viable option for schools, then what about for police, fire, DPW? I think the guy is absolutely clueless about the state of the economy. He does not get that the gravy train for everyone has run dry. We must cut expenses everywhere if we are going to survive. They guy is nutso. Your thoughts?
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