Subscribe to this BlogNo spouse, no job: Unemployment hits singles hard
It's rotten enough, of course, that September's unemployment rate, as reported Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, rose to 9.8%; it's looking as if the unemployment rate will reach the 10% mark before the Dow hits its own nice round number of 10,000.
But the numbers are even worse for particular segments of the population. As USA Today reports, the jobless rate for single people is more than double that of married people — 13.5% for the unmarried in August vs. 6.3% for wedded workers. One likely reason for the disparity, a researcher tells the newspaper, is that married men, motivated by a family to support, are more likely to take a new job at lower pay than their single counterparts; also, he says, singles tend to be younger and have less education and experience than those who are married.
Other better-known disparities behind the 9.8% headline figure remain in force. The unemployment rates for blacks and Hispanics are higher than the national average, at 15.4% and 12.7%, respectively; the rate for whites is a below-average 9.0%, and for Asians it's 7.4%. The rate for adult women is 7.8% and for adult men is 10.3%. For teenagers, it's a whopping 25.9%.
Among high-school graduates with no college education, 10.8% can't find work, while only 4.9% people with a bachelor's degree or higher face that problem.
Of course, that's just the people who are unemployed and looking for work, not those who are working part-time but wish they were working full-time. Nor do those numbers include people who have given up on looking for a job not because they don't want one, but because they've just given up on finding anything. So if you really want to get depressed, go to the EconomPic blog, which graphically (I mean that in the literal sense) shows how the unemployment rate would be even worse than it is were it not for the jump in people who have dropped out of the labor force. You can also see some unpleasant artwork showing how the hours worked per population member is falling off a cliff, and how the all-in underemployment rate is higher than ever.
I was watching news worldwide and one thing caught my attention, the flooded landslides, and typhoons in the Philippines. It was devastating but not too many people died because Filipinos help their nieghboors and each other to overcome the hardship. This is a one of the poorest country in Asia but still the their govenment help homeowners with government home loans to deferred their loans for one year. I was touched by these, a poor country who let their people stay in their homes versus a rich country like ours who put families out on the streets because Americans are divided.
Wow, Jack Rogers, you are a pathetic person. People like you are the one who dragged this country down. You were probably a criminal without human feelings at all. I feel sorry for you and you will never find a happiness that normal people have with yours attitude problem and selfishnes. Start praying and go to church and maybe you'll find happiness within your heart. That's ALL for you. Wait until you'll be in these people's shoes, maybe you'll just commit suicide because our selfish attitude. I feel sorry for you!
I second what you said Marc. For unemployment to be eliminated one has to concentrate on making products in his/her country. Manufacturing is what is lacking in most countries that are of high unemployment status. There are sources but no one to elaborate on it. Governments need to start looking in this direction.
Give a break on illegals. They work for
less than the minmuim and they take good jobs people here should have. for instance the meat packing plants where 70-80% of the workers were illegal have been replaced by AMERICANS who were born here. By the way those jobs pay way above the average in some states.
Unemployment doesn't pay the bills. When I was unemployed five years ago because my job was off-shored to India I worked 18 hours a day to find a new one. I still have the job I eventually found, but even after 5 years am only making about 2/3 of what I was making before and I am glad that I am making even that much. (and yes I have a BS/IT and 35 years of experience).
An economy has to make something to be successful. You need to grow something, dig something up, or fashion raw materials into things you can sell. You can't run an economy on just buying stuff because their is no "value added" all you can do is spend money you already have. Eventually the economy runs out of other peoples money – and that is what happened.
What we need to do is:
1: Inshore jobs back to America. Companies don't save all that much by having jobs offshore, and they loose the domestic market in the process
2: Come up with new products to sell world wide (for example):
-1: Solar cells for rooftop electrical generation
-2: Small plants that generate H2 from water and the electricity from home rooftops.
-3: Cars that run on H2 and GAS to use both infrastructures (such cars have been being tested for decades)
-4 Desalination plants that use large area solar cells (or concetrated solar/steam) to get fresh water – to generate the H2
This is one example of an integrated product stratagem that the US could sell the world, made with jobs right here!
The American economy will never be the same. The good jobs are gone and they're not coming back, if any come back, it'll be at a cheaper wage. You can thank our government for that. We need a government that puts our country first.
I second Ferdinand, the vast majority of those collecting unemployment insurance (and it's insurance, not welfare) are not spongers but struggling on a fraction of their past earnings. Intel cut over 2000 in Oregon, most who were earning just below and often above six figures, who would gladly regain 2/3rds if not 80% of their income IF there were such jobs to be had. The US, nor the world, is not a mere tax cut away from restoring normal (indeed, there's a US fiscal gap that cannot be closed without spending cuts and tax hikes; I know the Laffer Curve and even at a peak, we can't yield enough within in the current range).
wow Jack Rogers, that was an ignorant, ill-informed a statement as i've ever heard. I've been layed-off for about a month, and taking in unemployment for income while babysitting my child AND diligently looking for a job. Sure, i can look for a minimum wage job, but then i would have to worry about child care expenses, where the math just wouldn't add up. Our expenses were built around a dual income, and of course we have savings. But, like everything, the savings are finite. Unemployment while not quite what I was making, are a lifesaver. Keep in mind I will be keeping the option open of looking to get a job that makes less than what i used to make. But, if you know anything about job searching, most companies do not even look at a resume until probably 3 to 4 weeks after initial job posting. I'm sorry things are so black and white for you, but its not as simple as "unemployment=dead beat + video games". Unemployment insurance is a stop-gap that will prevent this country from going completely into the toilet. I'm not saying that people don't take advantage of Unemployment, but there are us hard workers who really do need it, and who are still looking for a job.
The government should drop the repatriation tax to allow U.S. based companies to bring foreign earned cash back to the U.S. tax free. The would lower the incentive to send jos to low cost locations as a means to spend foreign earned cash. The cash companies would bring back to the U.S. if the repatriation tax was lifted could be used to hire U.S. workers, capital investments in the U.S., and dividends to shareholders!
People who are married and both work enjoy an extra bit of insurance as well: it is unlikely that both spouses will lose their job at the same time.
The only way to create jobs is for the President and Congress is to stop meddling in the free market. As long as we continue to pay people not to work i.e. unemployment insurance, dead beats will stay home and play video games. Wow, all these people dropped out of the labor market and yet they still manage to survive.
If some illegal immigrant from Mexico, who doesn't even speak English, can get 2 or 3 jobs; you'd think an American born citizen could at least get one.
If President Obama and US Congress want to bring down US unemployment rate then they must completely stop failed and disastrous free-trade, free-market economic policies. They also must completely stop outsourcing of hard-working American workers' jobs to cheap-labor, no-quality China and India.
People are funny … cry when they don't have but not pay attention when they did. No sympathies here …