Unemployment reached another new high – the official rate is 9.8%. We’re getting ever closer to double digits. But when you count those who have given up or taken part time work it’s even worse.
The Labor Department said Friday that the economy lost a net total of 263,000 jobs last month, from a downwardly revised 201,000 in August. That’s worse than Wall Street economists’ expectations of 180,000 job losses, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
The unemployment rate rose from 9.7 percent in August, matching expectations.
“The labor market is still going backwards,” economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, wrote in a note to clients.
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If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the unemployment rate rose to 17 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.
According to a separate report Friday, U.S. factory orders fell in August by the largest amount in five months.
The Commerce Department said demand for manufactured goods dropped 0.8 percent, much worse than the 0.7 percent gain that economists had expected. The August decline reflected plunging demand for commercial aircraft, a category that surged in July.
The weak reports sent the stock market down in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial average fell 50 points, while broader indexes also declined.
More than a half-million unemployed people gave up looking for work last month. Had they continued searching, the official jobless rate would have been higher.
In related news, another epic failure which cost us a bundle was Cash for Clunkers. GM’s sales crashed last month - dropping 45%, and Chrysler’s dropped 42%! The only bright spot, if you want to call it that, was for Ford, whose sales only fell about 5%.
The more the democrats and Barack Obama brag about rescuing the economy, the more ridiculous they look to the American people. And we’re supposed to trust them with our health care? Please.
