How Many of us are unemployed??

1/5/2009

Worked 21 hours since then, but since FoC takes half the check (and I am current with c/s) and may "rebate' it to me in 4-6 weeks, it isn't work working part-time.

Unemployment in my immediate area is 15%+

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Roger

Our local unemployment rate has gone from less than 3 percent to just over 14 in the past year.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

I got laid off at the end of November from my job as a painter. Went on unemployment and found my weekly benefit rate was 105 bucks a week due to the fact I didn't work that much last year. Not that I didn't want to but there wasn't much out there and I kept waiting for my boss to call me back. I worked two lousy months until I was laid off. Found out all sorts of interesting things when I went back to work. Got a part time gig that was at first only one day a week but now is 4. Usually get in 25-30 hours in a week but at ten an hour it isn't much and plus I have to drive almost 40 miles one way to get to work. Last straw with the other job was when I went down to Madison for training and didn't get paid. A few months later the former boss decided to make it right and pay but needless to say I won't be coming back. I think the unemployment rate in my county is right around 12 percent.

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http://www.xanga.com/shackman A blog about whatever

DH is in the process of being laid off.

However, for as many job offers as he's already had, prior to being laid off, once it's official, I doubt he'll be unemployed for long.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

It's not the government you don't understand-- it's math.
From 5% t 8% is not an increase of 3%.
It's an increase of 62.5%

(5% up to 10%, for an easier example, would be an increase of 100%. Not 5. This is all with the assumption that I understand math, btw. lol)

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Don't mean to burst your bubble but that is the same position we were in and every offer fell through. I really hope the same doesn't happen to you. The week my dh lost his job the phone was ringing off the hook and nothing came of anything.

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Teach only Love...for that is what You are

This might be a bias source for infomantion on being laid off. I retired a couple of years ago- until then I did not have the time to look at or post to forums. I would suspect that there would be a population here weighted to the unemployed, disabled, and not employed outside the house with more time than the general population.
Not that that was the point of the OP...................

I'm not too worried. those are just the offers that have come to him. He hasn't really done any active looking yet, and there are a number of places that I know are hiring.
If nothing else, we're going into planting season. If he's willing to be a tractor jockey, he can have a job tomorrow at any of a half dozen farms in our area.

We just really aren't seeing the unemployment of the rest of the country in my part of the world.

(Though my county's unemployment has nearly doubled: From 2.5% a year ago, to 4.4% currently)

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

We were both unemployed by choice since we moved here at the end of November.

Nick is doing census canvassing now; I was going to, but the fibro flared really bad and I couldn't even finish the training.

Still, we're hoping to make enough to get by with the vegetables and orchard sales, as well as on-farm chicken sales.

We're learning to live even more frugally, and I'm hoping by next year that I'll be physically able to substitute teach.

Neither of us intends to go back to full-time work for anyone other than ourselves, but we know that we'll have to roll with whatever comes down the road.

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

Retired 3 years ago, worked a temp job for 3 months the first spring.

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"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."
Thomas Jefferson to George Washington 1787

I've been retierd 9 years.Since then my wife has been laid off from several Jobs but still seems to find something.But her pay has dropped about 50%.

big rockpile

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I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



If I need a Shelter
If I need a Friend
I go to the Rock!

Under-employed and attending college.

I have never been unemployed till now. I also have not collected unemployment ever.
So I am not on any of the governments figures.

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[B]Instant Karmas gonna get you[/B

http://freedomspantry.thrivelife.com/

I'm still working but I work on an organic farm and people are still eating so I think my job is pretty safe. I've also been there for over 15 years and the pay is pretty low but since I don't need a lot of money for frills and one benefit is fresh vegies. Oh yeah the other benefit is I sure am in good shape so I guess that counts as health benefits. Ha ha

Erin,

I would imagine that we both know something about math. We are simply stating two different things. My assertion, and I still hold to it, is that the percentage of the people in the workforce has only increased by 3%. If there were a workforce of 100 workers and 5 of them were unemployed, there would be a 5% unemployment rate. If the number of workers unemployed increased to 8, there would be 8% of the workforce that is unemployed. That's my only point. Unemployment has increased from 5% to 8%.

Your calculation is related to the rate of change in unemployment, not the percentage of the workforce that is unemployed. I agree that the rate has increased by about 62%, but the percent of people in the workforce that are unemployed certainly has not increased to 62%.

Unemployment must be bad. I have no experience with it.

Tom in TN

I am technically unemployed by choice. The last time I worked for a paycheck was in 1990.

Nor do I.
Though I've always counted my blessings that that is the case. Not that I've done anything particularly right, so much as I've just been very fortunate.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Yes, you are correct. Don't forget about the self employed either. There are scores of folks that are either sub-contractors or self employed that haven't seen a pay check in a long time!!!!

The self employed and sub-contract laborers are not included in the figures of those drawing unemployment benefits.

As a side note, as I understand it, only the folks who have paid in a certain amount over the last 5 quarters are eligible to draw benefits. Lots of folks get caught in this trap. Think about all the SAHM's that decided to come back into the workforce just 1 year ago. Or the people in the tech world that float between contract employees/self employed for a company and working as an employee of that company.

I doubt the young people just getting out of school are being counted.

Wow, the more I think about it, maybe there are tons of people not being counted in the unemployment figures.

Clove

Of course there are far more unemployed than appear on the stats. None of those folks drawing a check from SS old age benefits are on the list, none of those who draw disability, stay at home moms, (or dads), students, youth who are dependent upon their parents, the self employed, or those on welfare or other government benefits (like most gov employees) are on the unemployed lists. The official numbers probably only reflect 20 or 30 percent of the population that are unemployed, or underemployed.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Yvonne's hubby, et al.

I don't doubt that there are many people who aren't "counted" in the unemployment rate, but to the best of my knowledge, the methodology for determining that rate hasn't changed in the past year or so. My original point was that a year or so ago, when we running 5% unemployment, we were told that we were virtually at full-employment. Now, a year or so later, when the rate is 8%, the government/media cabal is claiming that things are worse than they've been since the great depression.

I, being an "ultra right-wing, conspiracy theorist, moron", think that's so the government can frighten the populist into accepting the explosion of government intervention in our lives. It ain't half as bad as the government wants us to think it is.

So, there you have it. Flame away.

Tom in TN