Unemployment could plague U.S. after jobs return
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Going just by the numbers. it might appear things are getting better, or at least not getting much worse. The unemployment rate dropped in August to 8.1 percent, from 8.3 percent. Yet the main reason for that decline was that many job-seekers gave up looking for work. A more accurate picture is visible in the four-week average of the number of people applying for unemployment benefits. The Labor Department said today that nearly 378,000 Americans applied for jobless aid last week, the highest level in nearly three months and the fifth-straight week that figure has increased.
It isn't just the number of people out of work that matters; it's also how long they've been out of work. Of the nearly 13.3 million unemployed people in the U.S., 5 million, or 40 percent, have been without a job for more than six months, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of this total, 4 million, or 29 percent, have been jobless for a year or more. This is near the all-time and three times the rate at the start of the Great Recession in 2008. It currently takes an American 39 weeks to find a job after being fired.
Poverty remains level, but
incomes fall
What do Americans think of the
rich?
Is the U.S. economy healing or
coughing blood?
The longer people are out of work, the harder it is for them to eventually make their way back into the labor force. And when they do find a job, it is typically for lower pay than what they previously earned. That doesn't only hurt individual households -- it's problematic for the entire U.S. economy, too, since employees facing lower wages and salaries are likely to reduce their spending, a serious challenge for a country that depends on personal consumption to drive growth.
It's well known that job losses have been lower among more highly educated people. In August, the unemployment rate for those with only a high school diploma was 10.3 percent, while for those with college degree it was 4.3 percent. But that disparity levels out once people lose their job.
An unemployed person with a doctorate has roughly the same chance of being out of work for more than a year as someone who hasn't finished high school, according to Pew Research Center. In fact, an unemployed worker with a PhD is slightly more likely to have trouble finding work again. That's because employers believe that the skills of these so-called knowledge workers decay the longer they are out of work.
Highly educated workers are also at a disadvantage because of the time required to acquire that education. Once older workers lose their job, meanwhile, they are are far more likely to enter the ranks of the long-term unemployed than younger workers are.
People returning to work after a long period almost always earn significantly less than they did before. The larger pool of job candidates, along with huge gains in worker productivity over the last decade, has caused the median income in the U.S. to fall. The median annual household income last year was $50,054, down 1.5 percent from 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It has now fallen back to the level it was at in 1996. This is shrinking the middle class as an income group and, perhaps even more fundamentally, may even be changing Americans' social identity.
Pew Research Center
Since World War II, most Americans have described themselves as belonging to the middle class. Indeed, the percentage of people who identify themselves as middle class has traditionally far exceeded the statistical definition of this group as measured by distribution of income. But that seems to be changing.
Pew, a nonpartisan think tank, also has found that nearly a third of Americans now describe themselves as belonging to the lower class -- that is up from 25 percent at the start of the recession.
About three-quarters of those who think of themselves as lower class say it's harder to get ahead today than it was 10 years ago. Only half believe hard work brings success, a view expressed by overwhelming majorities of those in the middle (67 percent) and upper classes (71 percent). People in the lower classes are also significantly more likely than middle- or upper-class adults to believe their children will have a worse standard of living than they do, Pew's research shows.
The expectation that each generation will surpass their parents is, of course, central to the American Dream. But with the middle class shrinking and the lower class expanding, that defining social and economic narrative in the U.S. may soon need revision.
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just wonder who will pass this one on. How about you
sending it on and back to me if you got the guts to do
so. I am and just wonder how many I will get back?
AND very happy to be of the 1%.
Someone
please tell me what the HELL's wrong with all the
people that run this country!!!!!!
Both
Republicans & Democrats
We're "broke" & can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless
etc.,???????????
In the last years we have provided aid to:
Haiti, Chile , Pakistan, Lybia , Egypt and Turkey , And Japan
Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government
and religious organizations pour
Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!
We have hundreds of adoptable
children who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans.
AMERICA:
a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without 'needed' meds, and mentally ill without treatment - etc,etc.
YET....................... They have a 'Benefit' for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations, ships and planes lining up with food, water, tents clothes, bedding, doctors and medical supplies.
Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.
Sad isn't it?
99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.
I'm one of the 1% --
I Just Did
=
____________________________________________________________Woman is 57 But Looks 27
Mom publishes simple facelift trick that angered doctors...
Republicans have been trying to destroy every safety net America has built since WW2. And they finally found the right formula to do just that. Starting with Reagan in 1981 they initiated what Bush2 rightly labeled "VooDoo economics".
They knew that they would not be able to get America to accept the elimination of those safety nets unless the country was at or near bankruptcy.
Their plan was to drastically increase spending while cutting taxes; then to borrow the necessary funds to fool voters into thinking their policies were actually working
No one ever really noticed that the national debt was rapidly expanding under Reagan simply because the debt had never increased even as much as $100 Billion in any single year after WW2, until 1982. It slowed under Bush1 and increased only $18 Billion under Clinton in 2000.
Then Bush/Cheney almost finished the job by increasing the debt from $5.807 Trillion (at the end of the last Clinton fiscal year budget) to $11.9 Trillion (at the end of the last Bush/Cheney fiscal year budget).
They excused their borrowing by loudly claiming that "THE DEBT DOESN"T MATTER". They certainly weren't concerned about YOUR GRAND CHILDREN then.
BTW, I recall reading somewhere that a certain conservative group said, "in order to accomplish our goal we will need another Pearle Harbor" (read 911).
---------
In my opinion, the fact that Obama didn't allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, nor close the many ridiculous tax loopholes that allow the wealthy to pay almost no taxes, is why the debt has continued it's rapid increase.
The economy HAS been slowed and kept from falling all the way into a second great depression and hopefully, in his second term; Obama will be more aggressive and push harder for those changes.
However, I was very disturbed by his recent promise to go even further in compromising with Republicans on the issues because There is NO DOUBT that republicans will NEVER agree to allowing the taxes to expire, close any loopholes, or (especially) to raise ANY taxes.
Now the rest of the story:
The Romney/Ryan ticket has made it abundantly clear that they are going to destroy Social Security and Medicare, and cut taxes even further thereby finishing what republicans have been striving to achieve for at least the past 3 decades.
Headlines:
"Data point to slowdown in U.S. manufacturing" Bloomberg (17 Sep.)
That means more job losses coming!
"High unemployment claims point to stagnant U.S. labor market" LA Times (20 Sep.) In fact the rolling four-week average of new unemployment claims INCREASED this month!
When have we had enough of Obama's failure? When are we going to hold him accountable?
Using nothing more than a vote for Republican or Republican Light, I will now turn a $20/hour manufacturing job with benefits into a part time $6/hour service sector job without benefits **Presto Change-o***
Unfortunately, the wealthiest have expanded their global infrastructure solely for their own profit and their "trickle down theory" doesn't really work. If they truly had a "great society" in mind, they sure haven't accomplished it yet.
If the wealthiest have ever read the Federalist Papers, James Madison Federalist #10 must be their favorite because they've been sitting on their reserves for sometime now and not investing in America. What are the wealthiest real motivations afterall?
I don't want to offend the wealthiest, but I'm sticking with Obama Biden 2012.
I couldn't believe that we are going to start all of this
again.
People will take these and get eat up in a few years when the interest goes up, up, up....
More Foreclosures, more bankruptcy, and more ruined credit.
Identify yourself what do you do.... what have you done.... what will you do? I thought so another silly troll.
We are permitting this by voting for a party that runs men like Romney. We vote for these people for a myriad of reasons. Religion, abortion, gun ownership, silly rumors, the lack of cable in the rural areas so all we see is FOX. We are certifiable.
40 percent of us pine for a shooting revolution. The same 40% believe that such a war would be glorious. We are certifiable.
I grew up in Ohio. 35% of the citizens in that state do not believe that we went to the moon at all, let alone 6 times. We are certifiable. The same citizens see conspiracy everywhere. They do not believe that the state of Hawaii produced the president's birth certificate. The government which they hate is made of 22 million conservative employees who have socialized medicine for health care called Medicare. We are most definitely certifiable.
Continue to vote or stay home for the top 2% while they enslave you and laugh at you by proxy. (wonder what the poor people are doing tonight?) ever hear or say that? Well now you know, or soon will find out! I am an old man, 66 in a few days. I am lovineveryminutofit!