Chart of the day

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in April (based on an increase of 176,00o private sector jobs and a decline of 11,000 government jobs), and the official unemployment rate was little changed at 7.5 percent.

But before the corks start popping, let’s remember that, almost four years into the “recovery,” 11.6 million people remain officially unemployed in the United States. And when we consider both workers marginally attached to the labor force and those who are working part-time for economic reasons, the total number of unemployed and underemployed Americans is 21.9 million, which leaves the broader (U6) unemployment rate little changed at 13.9 percent.

That’s what the employment situation looks like in the midst of the Second Great Depression.

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

 

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Esse quam videri

North Carolina lawmakers have decided to be ruthless with respect to the unemployed rather than just to seem to be ruthless.

the Republican-controlled legislature voted to cut maximum weekly benefits to $350 from $535, a 35 percent drop; reduce the maximum number of weeks for collecting benefits to between 12 and 20 weeks from 26 weeks; and tighten requirements to qualify. The cuts would begin with new jobless claims on July 1.

If the bill is signed by Gov. Pat McCrory, as expected, North Carolina would be the eighth state to roll back jobless benefits under the growing financial burden of the recession. According to the National Employment Law Project (pdf),

At the onset of the Great Recession, all states offered workers up to 26 weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) protection. This standard, which dates back to the 1950s in nearly all states, has come under unprecedented attack in state legislatures across the country. Over the past three years, seven states have cut the maximum number of UI weeks available, with additional cuts on the horizon in other states.

North Carolina has the nation’s fifth-highest unemployment rate, at 9.2 percent, compared with the national average of 7.9 percent.

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

 

Chart of the day

source

The chart shows the failure of U.S. corporations to create enough jobs to bring the long-term unemployment level down to anything close to historical levels.

What the chart doesn’t show is the number of American workers who have been unemployed for three years or more: 649,000! The Wall Street Journal offers a bizarre interpretation of this number:

What may be more surprising than the number of people who have dropped out of the labor force, however, is the number that have stayed in. To count this “unemployed” the official Labor Department statistics, a person must want to work, be available to work and have actively searched for work in the past four weeks. That hundreds of thousands of people still meet those requirements after years of searching — and months or even years after cashing their final unemployment check — is in some sense a sign of confidence that better times still lie ahead.

Me, I take it as a sign that people are forced to have the freedom to work for a wage in order to purchase the necessities of life—and thus, even though current economic arrangements have failed them, they have yet to give up their membership in the Reserve Army of the Unemployed.

Cartoon of the day

Special mention