is this why unemployment dropped to 9%

EnviroDude: is this why unemployment dropped to 9%

Exactly what I was thinking. The unemployment stats are based on people collecting unemployment. They can still be unemployed, but if they're not getting an unemployment check anymore, they aren't included. It skews the stat, but that's convenient for someone trying to claim that "statistically", unemployment fell. I call bull.

Official unemployment rate per the ILO definition occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.

so collecting unemployment has nothing to do with the unemployment rate, unless you are a troll or a moran.
thanks subby!!

/god I hate these people

EnviroDude: is this why unemployment dropped to 9%

Exactly what I was going to say.

sheilanagig: The unemployment stats are based on people collecting unemployment.

Not always. The BLS report for last month that pegged it at 9.0-9.2% was based on the household survey data, not unemployment claims.

BiffDangler: Which means they will get jobs now.. watch.. 6 months from now unemployment will drop as these people take the jobs they wouldnt take before

Yeah, except that they already are, and they can't live on the wages. That's when we get into "underemployment" territory. I know a lot of people working not one but two of those jobs. A lot of the people who are single here live communally because it's the only way for them to make the rent on what they're paid. That's not always a workable option for people who have families. They're the ones who are really SOL.

EnviroDude: is this why unemployment dropped to 9%

sheilanagig: Exactly what I was thinking. The unemployment stats are based on people collecting unemployment. They can still be unemployed, but if they're not getting an unemployment check anymore, they aren't included. It skews the stat, but that's convenient for someone trying to claim that "statistically", unemployment fell. I call bull

jaylectricity: Exactly what I was going to say.

jtown: Wait, this is news? I thought everyone knew how the unemployment numbers were crunched.

WAT? Did I fall through a wormhole and into bizzaro-world? Whether or not you are receiving unemployment insurance has absolutely nothing to do with whether you're counted as unemployed.

From the BLS: (new window)

Who is counted as unemployed?
Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Actively looking for work may consist of any of the following activities:

and

Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the Government uses the number of persons filing claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under State or Federal Government programs. But some people are still jobless when their benefits run out, and many more are not eligible at all or delay or never apply for benefits. So, quite clearly, UI information cannot be used as a source for complete information on the number of unemployed.

If you are no longer eligible for UI, and are still actively looking for work, then you still count as unemployed.

VictoryCabal: WAT? Did I fall through a wormhole and into bizzaro-world? Whether or not you are receiving unemployment insurance has absolutely nothing to do with whether you're counted as unemployed.

From the BLS: (new window)
Who is counted as unemployed?
Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Actively looking for work may consist of any of the following activities:

and

Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the Government uses the number of persons filing claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under State or Federal Government programs. But some people are still jobless when their benefits run out, and many more are not eligible at all or delay or never apply for benefits. So, quite clearly, UI information cannot be used as a source for complete information on the number of unemployed.


If you are no longer eligible for UI, and are still actively looking for work, then you still count as unemployed.

I stand corrected. That still doesn't make the report a positive one, just less negative.

Schlock: And how are they to know this to include you in their statistic?

Because unemployment insurance records relate only to persons who have applied for such benefits, and since it is impractical to actually count every unemployed person each month, the Government conducts a monthly sample survey called the Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure the extent of unemployment in the country. The CPS has been conducted in the United States every month since 1940, when it began as a Work Projects Administration project. It has been expanded and modified several times since then. For instance, beginning in 1994, the CPS estimates reflect the results of a major redesign of the survey. (For more information on the CPS redesign, see Chapter 1, "Labor Force Data Derived from the Current Population Survey," in the BLS Handbook of Methods.)

There are about 60,000 households in the sample for this survey. This translates into approximately 110,000 individuals, a large sample compared to public opinion surveys which usually cover fewer than 2,000 people. The CPS sample is selected so as to be representative of the entire population of the United States. In order to select the sample, all of the counties and county-equivalent cities in the country first are grouped into 2,025 geographic areas (sampling units). The Census Bureau then designs and selects a sample consisting of 824 of these geographic areas to represent each State and the District of Columbia. The sample is a State-based design and reflects urban and rural areas, different types of industrial and farming areas, and the major geographic divisions of each State. (For a detailed explanation of CPS sampling methodology, see Chapter 1, of the BLS Handbook of Methods.)

The headline is true, also working 10 hours a week also makes you employed, heck working 1 hour makes you employed. I used to work 40 to 90 hours a week. I would settle for 40.

cryinoutloud: My unemployment got cut off after 16 weeks. Somebody hook me up with this magical 99 weeks I keep hearing about.

Oh wait, I have a job--I worked one day last week. But I'm not "unemployed."

yah, if this is true, and I am assuming that it is, the system is retarded.
the idea that unemployment and welfare should be binary states is retarded.
of course there is a transition or temp jobs or really crappy, really low paying job which should augment or reduce some of your assistance, up to a certain "max". call it the poverty level. so your aide trickles off rather than disappears.

sigh

dlp211: You live in a shiatty state. In NJ if you get part time work they increase your UI payment and then deduct what you made, so you make out better working part time.

ooooooooooooooooooooooo
so some states are smart and some state are complete farktards?
anyone have a list?

sheilanagig: A lot of the people who are single here live communally because it's the only way for them to make the rent on what they're paid. That's not always a workable option for people who have families. They're the ones who are really SOL.

so what?
why do people think that they should be able to live alone on a crappy jorb?
when I didnt make enough money to live alone I lived at home. when I earned enough, I got my own place. I lived with someone for awhile and we shared expenses. If I lost my job and couldnt afford my current living situation, I would adjust to fit.

this is reality. I guess I remember them 80s after having lived through them. talk to your parents about why you got screwed by their generation.

/CUT TAXES, BORROW UNTIL IT HURTS, SCREW THE KIDS !!!

majestic: Ok. But explain how they know to count you? When my benefits ran out, I was told to continue filing a weekly claim even though I wouldn't receive anything. I didn't. So how did they know to count me?

so you are a moran and werent counted and you see this as a problem?
LOL

this sounds like the people who didnt vote and then complain about elected officials. at least when you vote for the lesser evil ...

oh nvm

finkleiseinhorn: Appropos of nothing pertaining to the discussion, I'm always surprised at the partisan hate that people are willing to post on these articles using their FB accounts. Doesn't seem to be the brightest thing.

ROFL

namatad: when I didnt make enough money to live alone I lived at home.

Since I was 20, I made enough not to live at home. until I was in my late forties. I made enough to have a house, a family and a modest life style. I am glad you got a leg up and feel secure. You didn't do it without help. So your superiority is foolish and dishonest. In the end, the people who killed my employer all have jobs. Me and 200 of my friends not so much. Wait until you get blind sided, I hope you don't.

finkleiseinhorn: namatad: finkleiseinhorn: Appropos of nothing pertaining to the discussion, I'm always surprised at the partisan hate that people are willing to post on these articles using their FB accounts. Doesn't seem to be the brightest thing.

ROFL

Did I miss something?

nope
I am laughing at all the tards posting from their FB accounts. going on the record.
later they will be complaining when it comes back to bite them.

Fear_and_Loathing: namatad: when I didnt make enough money to live alone I lived at home.

Since I was 20, I made enough not to live at home. until I was in my late forties. I made enough to have a house, a family and a modest life style. I am glad you got a leg up and feel secure. You didn't do it without help. So your superiority is foolish and dishonest. In the end, the people who killed my employer all have jobs. Me and 200 of my friends not so much. Wait until you get blind sided, I hope you don't.

Fear_and_Loathing: namatad: when I didnt make enough money to live alone I lived at home.

Since I was 20, I made enough not to live at home. until I was in my late forties. I made enough to have a house, a family and a modest life style. I am glad you got a leg up and feel secure. You didn't do it without help. So your superiority is foolish and dishonest. In the end, the people who killed my employer all have jobs. Me and 200 of my friends not so much. Wait until you get blind sided, I hope you don't.

I think about this constantly. what will I do if the unexpected happens and I lose my job. I certainly dont save enough to live on and would have to dig into my 401k.

EVERYONE got a leg-up. EVERYONE got where they are with the help of others.
Superiority? luck maybe. brains certainly. but a lot of luck. and living close to my means.

but you can never prevent getting blindsided. you can prepare a bit, but in the end, the definition is something which you can not plan for.
but then again, there is luck and planning.

I dont have a family and yet I have long term disability, in case the worst possible happens and I can never work again because I am injured/sick/what not.

but this still leaves the so what question unanswered.
so you got screwed. this means that things are GOING TO BE DIFFERENT. that you wont be able to just keep going the way things are. and you deal with it.

a thread yesterday or the day before talked about people going to ND to drill oil. 2 weeks on 1 week off. and that they would have to be away from their family. optimal? no. but better than homeless, right?

people make choices. and then dont want to live with them. that has been a lot of the problems lately. that and not paying any of our bills ...

/my current worthless fall back plan if I lost my jorb is to move to the far east, live on rice and kimchi and teach ESL. do the things which I wished I had done when I was younger.
/but in the end, it would mean MASSIVE changes in every aspect of my life. serenity now

Evil Kirk vs Bad Ash: My question is this. Does anyone honestly believe we will ever see real job growth again, now that we can't imagine living without everything we do online.

much much much more than the last century.
at LEAST since the industrial revolution.
EVERYTHING became easier to make or do.
EVERYTHING.

it takes less people to grow food. to make clothing. to make tools. to literally do EVERYTHING.

growth comes in the new. how many jobs exist today which didnt exist 10 years ago? 20? 50?

how about something as simple as better cars. they need less repairs and maintance. that put a lot of car repair guys out of work. typesetters. do you even know what that word means? I watched the typesetters protest against losing their jobs at the papers. or being forced to be retrained and lose senority. LOL. we dont even have newspapers any more!!
(or at least they are dying)

why about people who used to work at vinyl record album factories? they are all out of jobs. even the people at the cd/dvd pressing factories jobs are now at risk.

we are just seeing more accelerated change.

we COULD go back. we could insist on having a checkout clerk instead of self-checkout. everything would cost a few percent more. what about someone to pump your gas? some states still have that by LAW. we think they are backwards, right?

but what we find is that NO ONE wants to low paying jobs. the south is HURTING because they have scared away all the illegal farm workers and even prisoners dont want to work in the fields.

so can we bring back the mindless deadend jobs? probably not.
should we? meh, no idea.

I have paid every bill, well most. Paid off debt. Tried to be a good citizen. Delt with shiatty employers than know people are slavering over minimum wage jobs and they treat them like crap. I am glad your plan will work out, and likely you won't have to go there, but call me back when and if you get there. Until then, well nevermind.

So again, you have a gov't option, if you fail.

My in-laws and friend keep begging me to apply for disability. I want a job, disability isn't even my fallback, but it seems to be yours. My job was hard on my body, then I got sick, I can do useful work. I want to do useful work. My wife, kids and folks won't let me on a step ladder, but I worked for years 150' in the air. I want to work an honest day for an honest dollar.But your fallback is gov't money.

You're all wrong. It's easy...they count how many people there are, then subtract the number of jobs there are.

It's science.

cryinoutloud: Lemme ask you something, totally serious, because I don't buy this. How do they determine if a person is looking for work? Does someone look at every job application and put a name on it? I don't see any way of determining how many people are "looking for work." And even if they could figure it out, how would they figure out how many of those people are unemployed now, and how many of them are just looking for a better job?

/the mysterious THEY, who know all.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the unemployment rate. They survey a very large sample of American households, and have a concrete standard for what counts as "looking for work". There's a FAQ and the BLS link I posted at the top of the thread which gives the specifics of their standards and methods.

Sometimes I don't think the captains of industry and finance won't be happy until they roll back the clock to 1880, when families barely got to say hello to each other living in the same house, because they were all working and still couldn't afford scraps to eat. There was no such thing as workman's comp or a weekend or vacation hours or unemployment insurance or retirement. The disabled and elderly had to rely on charity, because there was no social security or medicare.

Incidentally, on a tangent, did you know that married couples sleeping in the same bed was a product of the industrial revolution and tenement living? That and the lack of contraceptives made for a lot of unwanted kids who either ended up being smothered in their sleep or dropped off in orphanages to starve.

Jesus, conservatives, would you please stop dragging us kicking and screaming back to the 19th century? Pretty please? It wasn't nice back then. I'd like to keep my occasional day off and stuff.