Wow, this is incredible. When you consider all of the housewives in america, this is most impressive! Great Job G.W. the tax breaks work!
Again, what henny forgets to mention (the same way gtech does) is that the newly employed are being hired by the rich ( who got tax breaks over a half million dollars each year ) for slave wages and dead end jobs that continue to make the rich, richer. Henny, if you were flipping burgers at burger king, with the new employed, would you still be so happy about that percentage?
4.7% is good! But I can't help but wonder if the calculations are being tampered with somehow. Kind of like THIS! It should be noted that the unemployment rate is not true measure of unemployment. It's (Household Survey Data) ~ 60K households. <--- Subject to sampling. They stopped using real figures after the Great Depression. Also.... In 2004, 12.7 percent of all persons lived in poverty. In 1993 the poverty rate was 15.1 percent. Between 1993 and 2000, the poverty rate fell each year, reaching 11.3 percent in 2000. Poverty has risen in each of the last four years. ^---- Also survey info.
Excellent post rob.. exactly the point i was trying to make. Henny acts like everyone getting $7.00/hour jobs is something to be proud of... like people are actually able to afford things with that kind of money
By the reuters.com: The March unemployment rate matched the January rate, but it has not been lower than that since July 2001, when it was at 4.6 percent. "I think the Fed wants the unemployment rate to stop going down pretty much immediately, and if it doesn't the Fed will keep tightening," said economist Jim O'Sullivan of UBS Securities in Greenwich, Conn. "So no reason to panic for the Fed, but certainly more reason for them to take rates a little higher," If fed rate will be higher the unemployment can raise.
You think the poverty rate has decreased since 2004, Henny? That would be quite amazing w/ Katrina figured in.
i hate to become the economic nit-picker here, but these housewives are not included in unemployment statistics. people who do not work and are not ACTIVELY LOOKING for work are not considered to be unemployed. just to make myself clear, here's an example. i lose my job and start looking for a new one. i apply everywhere but noone will hire me. i say "bah screw it i'm never gonna get a job" and give up my search. in economic terms, after a short time passes, i am no longer unemployed (i am now a "discouraged worker"). now about the actual issue although i don't approve of bush's fiscal policy in any way, shape, or form, i do think the currently low unemployment is good (only because inflation has been low at the same time--thank you Greenspan).
Here's a little info: For those who haven't studied poverty in the US at all, I think you'd be surprised to see just how incredibly poor you have to be to fall into the "impoverished" category: Source: http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/#2 When you think about the fact that tons of the guys on these forums have websites just sitting around pulling in 10k plus a year, it's hard to understand how a TOTAL household income for two adults of just $12,649 can be "not poor."
so 12.7% of the 300 million americans are in poverty... thats 38 million people living on less than $1,000/month.... Quite the booming and thriving economy we have
And here are the 2005 threasholds for you Henny. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld/thresh05.html Yeah, no crap! Especially when healthcare costs keep rising...and rising...and rising....
when you think about the fact that we really do have the strongest economy in the world, these statistics become a little depressing... atleast they have medicaid... well... for now BTW, for those who have some time on their hands and are interested in this topic, check out http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Documents.asp?section=813 I just finished a really interesting economics course on poverty and public policy, and we were able to use the Green Book to find tons of interesting data. PS: Sorry about that double post Crazy_Rob
This excludes those who have given up looking for jobs. Im sure there are many that want to work, couldnt get a job, so now they stay at home with the kids.
Wow, I wonder if Clinton enjoyed all the doom and gloom on his 4.7% unemployment? No, in fact, when Clinton reached just 5.6%, the media and democrats hailed it as a huge success! Media Downplaying U.S. Economic Success? Gotta love it! 5.6% is a huge success, 4.7% is miserable! Oh, the doom and gloom
Gtech, clinton did that while reducing the budget deficit all the way up until it became a surplus. Economically speaking, in my mind, Clinton was one of the greatest presidents the US has ever had. Economically speaking. It's alot easier to lower unemployment when you're spending money right and left (that money being spent has to buy goods and pay for services that people work to provide).
NOT, the budget deficit was projected at the same growth as clinton's dotcom, enron growth over 20 some years. The dirty little secret? the defecit was NEVER a surplus under cliton, it was just projected to be, using pre dotcom burst economic numbers and of course the media played right along.
Actually, I covered that last night over here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showpost.php?p=781935&postcount=58 Is it safe to say you didn't find any evidence supporting it? Will you be investing in Burger King now? One hundred and thirty three thousand, three hundred and thirty three new Burger Kings is phenomenal growth! Unemployment goes up, they cry. Unemployment goes down, they cry. Two conclusions here: First Conclusion (Well known) Second Conclusion (Gotta love this one!)