I know I briefly mentioned this point earlier in the week, but the matter has gotten worse.
There is seriously bad news on the employment front. First, we had the unemployment report, released yesterday. Because this link only contains the current information, allow me to post the important bits for the benefits of those who might read this in the future. For the week ended January 3, 2004, seasonally adjusted initial claims — the widely reported number — were up 14,000 to 353,000. However, there were actually 546,823 new unemployment claims that week, up 30,431. Now, I don’t know about you, but I think it’s more important to know that there were over half a million people who applied for unemployment checks for the first time, 3,724,660 total claims, and 765,570 making claims under a Federal program for the relatively long term unemployed last week than to harp on “seasonality.”
Now, please scroll down with me to this chart, as taken directly from the DOL link above:
States with an Increase of More than 1,000
|
AL |
+1,043 |
|
Layoffs in the textile and electrical equipment |
|
MN |
+1,167 |
|
Layoffs in the manufacturing industry. |
|
RI |
+1,170 |
|
Layoffs in the trade and service industries. |
|
VT |
+1,630 |
|
Layoffs in the manufacturing industry. |
|
IL |
+1,919 |
|
Layoffs in the construction, service, and manufacturing |
|
ID |
+2,351 |
|
No comment. |
|
KS |
+3,240 |
|
Layoffs in the trade, service, real estate, and manufacturing |
|
AR |
+3,379 |
|
No comment. |
|
CA |
+3,781 |
|
Layoffs in the motion picture industry. |
|
OH |
+3,906 |
|
Layoffs in the construction industry. |
|
IN |
+3,935 |
|
Layoffs in the manufacturing industry. |
|
IA |
+3,937 |
|
No comment. |
|
WA |
+3,958 |
|
No comment. |
|
OR |
+5,245 |
|
No comment. |
|
NJ |
+5,930 |
|
Layoffs in the transportation, warehousing, food, public |
|
MA |
+7,043 |
|
No comment. |
|
PA |
+13,179 |
|
Layoffs in the food, textile, primary and fabricated metals, |
|
WI |
+16,375 |
|
Layoffs in the construction, trade, service, transportation, |
|
MI |
+20,583 |
|
Layoffs in the automobile and transportation equipment |
That’s right, the increase in people laid off in Michigan alone was more than the seasonally adjusted rise in first time claims. First time unemployment claims in Michigan rose by a number just short of the entire undergraduate student population at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus. The increase in new claims in Wisconsin alone exceeded the seasonally adjusted rise in first time claims, and the Pennsylvania numbers were only slightly better.
There is the first part of the answer to the great economic question: How come the economy looks great on paper, but seems so lousy to me and everybody I know? The stuff on paper is a lie.
But wait, there’s more. It seems that the economy created about 1,000 jobs last month. That falls short of economists’ expectations of 140,000. That is an error of over 99%; an error most of us who still actually have jobs would get fired over. Yes, gaining a thousand jobs is better than losing them — although in a nation of 292 million people, a thousand jobs is a rounding error. But still, a thousand jobs created falls well short of the 100,000 needed just to keep up with additions to the labor force and 200,000 needed to really reduce unemployment.
Hold on, you say, unemployment did drop, from 5.9% to 5.7%. Yes, yes it did. That’s because about 430,000 unemployed people gave up even looking for work. They are now termed “discouraged workers” as opposed to merely “unemployed.”
If enough people get “discouraged,” we’ll have full employment.
Maybe there will be jobs on the Moon.