How is your job?: Where did 661k workers disappear to last month?
Submitted by SteveMT on Sat, 01/09/2010 - 16:40Possible answers:
1. They found "Galt's Gulch."
2. They were taken to the "Ministry of Love."
3. They got discouraged and are no longer seeking employment.
How are members of the DP fairing with their employment status?
Stable, Tenuous, Laid-off, Unemployed?
Shrinking U.S. Labor Force Keeps Unemployment Rate From Rising
By Bob Willis and Courtney Schlisserman
Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- An exodus of discouraged workers from the job market kept the U.S. unemployment rate from climbing above 10 percent in December, economists said.
Had the labor force not decreased by 661,000 last month, the jobless rate would have been 10.4 percent, according to economists including David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff & Associates in Toronto and Harm Bandholz at UniCredit Research in New York.
“The actual unemployment rate is higher than shown by the official numbers,” Bandholz said yesterday after a Labor Department report released in Washington showed the economy unexpectedly lost 85,000 jobs in December while the jobless rate was unchanged.
About 1.7 million Americans opted out of the workforce from July through December, representing a 1.1 percent drop that marks the biggest six-month decrease since 1961, the Labor Department report showed. The share of the population in the labor force last month fell to the lowest level in 24 years.
December’s 10 percent unemployment rate matched the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. It was shy of the 26-year high of 10.1 percent reached two months earlier.
The so-called underemployment rate -- which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- rose to 17.3 percent in December from 17.2 percent.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHA4PMI1...
I left the job market a few years ago
In my entire working career, involving different jobs, every other quarter involved massive lay-offs. My number didn't always come up, but I got the message and averaging 3 months working full-time looking for the next one was no fun. When I lost my last job and couldn't get another one within six months, I just threw in the towel, became a stay-at-home mom, and devoted myself to making my household as efficient as I could.
If I were still working, I'd be having to weigh the benefit of the extra income against the cost of childcare. My son would have been jammed in special needs services by now instead of the recovery he's been able to enjoy with loving attention. We use cloth diapers and eat healthier than we would if we had to rely on convenience foods. When someone in my family gets sick, I can go and help them without risking my job by taking time off work.
The stability of running a more efficient household so far has allowed us to just make it on my husband's income alone. If we were both working, we might be putting a little into savings after the extra expenses are done with, but that would only be used up so I could spend my time job-hunting at the next lay-off. This is better and we are happier.
I think a lot of other people are discovering that now, too.
Defend Liberty!
RonPauler: Thanks for sharing your take on jobs.
The fact that your family is managing with your home efficiency efforts and your son is thriving with his mom at home is a blessing. Everyone is playing a crucial in the family these days, breadwinner as well as homemaker. There is no redundancy.