October’s rise in the unemployment rate past 10% had been eventually expected but is still sobering and a reminder that the high rate of unemployment is a daunting task for both policymakers and those who have find themselves downsized out of a job.
A broader measure of unemployment, known as U-6 which includes discouraged workers not counted under the standard definition as well as part-timers who want full time work, rose from 17.0% to 17.5%.
Because it appears that the economic recovery will be gradual (see L, W, U, V – the alphabet soup of economic recoveries) and job growth is a lagging indicator, unemployment above 10% is likely to persist for some time, while an eventual rate hike by the Federal Reserve will be pushed further into the future.
I covered most of the details of today’s release at Examiner.com. Although the chart below indicates that the pace of job losses is slowing, the last three months show there has been very little progress.
Yes, we are seeing modest declines in weekly jobless claims as companies gradually turn more optimistic on the economy, but improvement has been far too slow and claims north of 500,000 each week suggests the jobless rate may be headed higher.
0 comments:
Post a Comment