US gasoline consumption WAY down
 

Significant drop in gasoline use month over month. 2009, we were buying about 50,000 gallons a month. As of May, 2013 (latest figure on the chart ), that was down to 24,378.

Wow. That is a HUGE drop, and I doubt better gas mileage is the cause for most of it.

Things like this are hard figures that point to the real state of the economy and the "recovery".

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/Lea...A103600001&f=M

Perhaps the lack of income, combined with very high prices; has something to do with it.:coffee:

Well thank goodness consumption has dropped so much or else we would be paying over $5 a gallon.

Naw now the price will go up because they aint selling enough to operate :smack

Maybe more people are using smaller cars, and using them less often. Or maybe a lot more people are realizing that conspicuous consumption is no longer cool. Whatever the reason, I think it's great that gasoline consumption is down by so much.

Shouldn't that be 50,000 gallons per day instead of month ?

50,000,000+- gallons per day. Not sure I trust those figures.

The chart is in thousands of gallons a day so 24,000 on the chart times a thousand gallons is 24,000,000 a day. Seems reasonable to me.

Gasoline is one of those commodities that everyone needs. You can change your consumption short term, to a limited extent, by driving less. Long term changes ,like moving closer to work, take a while to implement. This is why the oil companies can gouge the consumer. Part of me says that the price should be regulated, like it used to be, to prevent gouging but another part of me is happy that we are using less oil and supplying our Muslim enemies with less funds to attack us.

A lack of a demand due to the lack of a need as a resoult of no JOB might play a roll.

Unemployment, while still high, is lower than in previous years (since 07')

Gas sales are lower than right after the crash.

Unemployment and not having a job are NOT the same thing. Also SSI & SSDI is jumping. Those are also not included in the numbers for stats on unemployment

How is unemployed different, than not having a job?

If you retired, or became disabled, wouldn't you be consuming less gasoline, because you are driving less miles, or none at all?

[QUOTE=plowjockey;6690469]How is unemployed different, than not having a job?/QUOTE]

kasilofhome is talking about how the govt calculates the "unemployment rate".

For example, I don't have a job. I had to quit the one I had when I moved from Utah to VA in 2011, and when I got to VA and applied for jobs I was unable to find one in my field. So I was out of work, but I didn't qualify for unemployment and I didn't show up on any of the govt's statistics - they didn't "know" that I was unemployed. Ultimately, with no job prospects on the horizon, my DH and I decided that we could afford for me to be a SAHM so I stopped looking.

Last place I worked, all employees were hired on 1-year contracts. At the end of your year, you either got a new 1-year contract or you didn't :shrug: Because the contracts were time limited, if your contract expired and you weren't offered a new one, you hadn't been fired and therefore you didn't qualify for unemployment. Several of my former co-workers tried to appeal this to the unemployment board but got shot down...so they didn't get unemployment and they didn't show up in the feds' official headcount of the "unemployed" either - even thou they were clearly out of work.

Why such a huge drop in one month in the fall of 2011?Unemployment would have to be nearly 50% to give these results.There is more than meets the eye here.I don't understand it.

[quote=bluemoonluck;6690603]The unemployment rate is determined by random polling, not by unemployment compensation claims.

It's been done this way for 70 years

http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm

That's more like it. I've worked in refineries that made a lot more more gasoline than 24,000 gal/day. Heck, we saw more than that just in straight-run gasoline.

I used to order stuff online to pick up at the store or find stuff on craigslist a lot more than I do now. Now I combine trips and have stuff shipped to my house. I also bought a car with double the gas mileage of my old car that broke down. I probably use about 50% of the gas I did 5 or 6 years ago.

I really miss the road trips to yard sales saturday mornings.

[quote=plowjockey;6690882]
And the answer that you are not working because you contract ran out is not counted as UNEMPLOYED--

It does not matter it people are polled by paper or phone--the fact that UNEMPLOYED are jobless due to being recently classified as an EMPLOYEE --not contractor and that they are looking for work and have been an employee recently ---an unemployee may view themself as unemployed but due to the goverment use of the word they may have timed off of the roles of unemployed. They may never have qualifed as unemployeed.

From what I've read the MPG of cars has gone slightly up. Our poplulation has become more urbanized so distance people drive to work or store is less.

Well, I know why our gas consumption went down - we're retired so we don't drive much anymore, just what is absolutely necessary, and we traded our gas hog of a truck in for a small 4 cyl. engine car....

That's a 20% drop in 1 month. I'd guess there's some accounting magic in there somewhere.

WWW

Sage is not unemployed Sage is jobless ---are you getting the importance of how one qualifies to be counted as unemployed and why those numbers are scewed.

If Americans are not working, apparently they are still buying automobiles.

Maybe they are saving gas, by leaving them parked in the driveway.

Consumers Push July U.S. Auto Sales Up Sharply


Apparently, Walmart is now not the only one hiring. :rolleyes:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...p-sharply.html

[quote=kasilofhome;6691100]Isn't a Independent Contractor considered self-employed, which would be treated differently for the unemployment count?

Just curious.