I'm not a yank, but I've a web site that deals with unemployment in the U.S., especially the long term unemployed. Plus, I've a mate, and contributor to the site, who has over 40 years inside knowledge working in both congress and reporting on Congress.
This has all given me quite an insight into the "real world" of unemployment. For starters the actual true figure for unemployed is around 17%, not 9.8% as reported by the BLS. Even the BLS acknowledges this.
Job creation is not even keeping up with new entrants into the workforce, let alone those already unemployed. It's calculated that to get to pre-recession levels of unemployment, over 200k jobs need to be created each month for 11 years. Last month 39k jobs were created... nuff said.
Also worth noting that unemployment insurance != welfare.
Welfare provides some relief for those who've used up all available Tiers 1-4 of UEC. At the moment there's nearly 6 million people in the U.S. without any form of income, as Congress only re-instated Tiers 1-4 just before they adjourned. This did not re-set the clock, so to speak, as many media outlets wrongly reported. All it did was re-instate the current Tiers that all expired on Nov 30. So if you were already part way through a Tier 4 come Nov 30, all you get is the balance of that tier. Once that expires you join the long-term unemployed, know as 99ers. It's estimated that from Jan 1 nearly 200k people each week will become 99ers as their benefits expire.
I could go on, but the point is, there's many factors at work here, and it's blatantly wrong and dishonest of those who say a) the unemployed are lazy b) they're living like kings on their UEC. That's just bullshit. Sure, there's always a few lazy ones, but the majority of those on Tiers or who are now 99ers want to work. But the jobs just aren't there.
This recovery is being called a "jobless recovery". Companies are increasing profits, but are not hiring. In fact, some companies are actually laying off workers while seeing profits increase.
</end rant>
This has all given me quite an insight into the "real world" of unemployment. For starters the actual true figure for unemployed is around 17%, not 9.8% as reported by the BLS. Even the BLS acknowledges this.
Job creation is not even keeping up with new entrants into the workforce, let alone those already unemployed. It's calculated that to get to pre-recession levels of unemployment, over 200k jobs need to be created each month for 11 years. Last month 39k jobs were created... nuff said.
Also worth noting that unemployment insurance != welfare.
Welfare provides some relief for those who've used up all available Tiers 1-4 of UEC. At the moment there's nearly 6 million people in the U.S. without any form of income, as Congress only re-instated Tiers 1-4 just before they adjourned. This did not re-set the clock, so to speak, as many media outlets wrongly reported. All it did was re-instate the current Tiers that all expired on Nov 30. So if you were already part way through a Tier 4 come Nov 30, all you get is the balance of that tier. Once that expires you join the long-term unemployed, know as 99ers. It's estimated that from Jan 1 nearly 200k people each week will become 99ers as their benefits expire.
I could go on, but the point is, there's many factors at work here, and it's blatantly wrong and dishonest of those who say a) the unemployed are lazy b) they're living like kings on their UEC. That's just bullshit. Sure, there's always a few lazy ones, but the majority of those on Tiers or who are now 99ers want to work. But the jobs just aren't there.
This recovery is being called a "jobless recovery". Companies are increasing profits, but are not hiring. In fact, some companies are actually laying off workers while seeing profits increase.
</end rant>
