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Econwatch
March 5, 2010 2:31 PM

Unemployment Rate Steady At 9.7%

By
MoneyWatch.com
Topics
Financial Decoder

This post by Jill Schlesinger originally appeared on CBS' MoneyWatch.com.


Snowicane? Schmoicane! The BLS report is out and despite whispers of horrible numbers due to February storms along the East coast (over 1 million workers didn't work in February due to bad weather; in a typical February, just 291k aren't able to work; so the weather really was bad), the news was better than expected.


(AP)

Here are the basics:


• The US economy lost 36,000 jobs in February, bringing the total of lost jobs since the beginning of the recession to 8.43 million
• December job loss revised from -150K to -109K; January revised to -26K from -20K
• The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7% -- the rate may have peaked at 10.1% last fall
• The broader unemployment rate, which includes part-time and discouraged workers, rose to 16.8% from 16.5%
• Long-term unemployment (more than 6 months) is still a problem-6.13 million workers have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks, which equals 4% of the civilian workforce, a slight decrease from the 6.3 million and 4.1% record set last month. (Records started in 1948)
• Temporary jobs continued to improve for the 5th consecutive month with 48K new positions added last month -- temp jobs are seen as a leading indicator for future full time jobs

I was on CNN's American Morning today, analyzing the jobs report with my pal Lakshman Achuthan from ECRI. I loved his line that this is turning out to be "The Rodney Dangerfield Recovery," because it gets no respect. Who knew-an economist with a sense of humor?

It's been a long slog for the US economy and it's not all bright and sunny just yet. After all, nearly 15 million people are still out of work and there are nearly 6 unemployed workers for every job opening available. This chart from Catherine Rampell at Economix says it all.

But maybe, just maybe, there are signs of sunshine on the horizon.



More on MoneyWatch
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• Top 10 Job Interview Mistakes
• Job Interview Tips: Don't Act Old
• Graduate School: Should You Get Another Degree?


(CBS)
Jill Schlesinger is the Editor-at-Large for CBS MoneyWatch.com. Prior to the launch of MoneyWatch, she was the Chief Investment Officer for an independent investment advisory firm. In her infancy, she was an options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York.

Add a Comment
by Bryon_1976 March 11, 2010 5:26 PM EST
Aaaw, Jill, the poor Rodney Dangerfield recovery can't get any respect? Aaaaw, poor recovery THAT'S NOT REALLY A RECOVERY. 400 families in America have more wealth than the other 187 million families combined. Every time you give us the Wall Street friendly, Banker friendly spin you're assisting the theft. 1% of the population has fleeced 99% of the rest of us. Our middle class is collapsing. Any jobs that are coming back are paying $10 if people are lucky...often far less, and often with no benefits whatsoever. I've seen your writing. You love using headlines that show anger at Wall Street and the Banks. You even throw a little false outrage at them to gain our trust. Then, you seductively twist and manipulate us to convince us that it's not so bad. We just don't understand how important it was to "save" the banks. This was engineered, no one got "saved". Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and company are using the Federal Reserve to leach our blood and feed it to their corporate masters. Now that our corporate masters have bled us dry and can't turn a profit off of us they want us kicked to the curb. Everyone at the top is on board to deliver exactly that, and people like you try to pitch us the plan...everything's going to be okay. NO IT ISN'T. If you believe what you're writing, think it through, but I think you don't believe what you're writing. I think you know exactly what you've been doing. Do you really think your masters won't abandon you? You want a recovery that gets respect? 187 million families taking back what 400 families have stolen from us, the disbanding of big banks and corporations, and the slaughter of the bloodsucking beast from Jeckyll Island to be replaced with monetary policymaking by representatives of the people, elected by the people and accountable to the people. This is the end of the road for the moneychangers and you won't keep trying to cover it up. Period.
Reply to this comment
by OldGeezer43 March 6, 2010 2:39 PM EST
Add to the 36,000 job loss 26 banks closed, CBO estimate of additional 9.7T to national debt by 2020, oil up to $81/barrel, national debt to soar to 90% of economy by 2020, Wall Street still unaware of anything continues to reap profits at our expense, unrelenting wars, a hostile world headed for the brink of destruction, environmental problems. Where do you think we're headed?
Reply to this comment
by Sailingwindward March 5, 2010 10:55 PM EST
NAFTA, CAFTA, APTA, AFTA, AFTZ, SAFTA, DR-CAFTA, CEFTA, ASEAN, this is a portion of the long list of one sided FREE TRADE agreements that have caused massive job losses. Until our government get serious and addresses this as the root cause of the problem I don't see the US ever recovering from this downfall.
Reply to this comment
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