Comments on: U.S. Unemployment May be a Bigger Problem Than Government Statistics Say

By: U.S. Economy Will Dodge a Double-Dip Downturn, But Won't Escape Unemployment Woes During 2010 Jobless Recovery

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:21:07 +0000

[...] have ended, but for the millions of unemployed workers the hard times are far from over. Given that almost one-fifth of the U.S. work force is unemployed or underemployed, don’t expect consumers to step up and step in if stimulus [...]

By: Unemployment Rate Cracks Double-Digit Barrier at 10.2%, Boosting the Odds of a "Jobless Recovery"

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:01:17 +0000

[...] Including part-time workers who’d prefer a full-time position – and people who want work but who have given up looking – unemployment levels reached a record 17.5% in October, up from 17% in September. That’s almost one-fifth of the U.S. work force. [...]

By: Stormy Mid-Year Employment Outlook Leaves Investors in the Dark About the Economy's Second-Half Prospects

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:00:35 +0000

[...] to get the real picture, you have to add in what the government refers to as “discouraged” workers and [...]

By: Is the U.S. Economy Headed for a “Jobless Recovery?”

Is the U.S. Economy Headed for a “Jobless Recovery?” — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:04:27 +0000

[...] As reported previously in Money Morning, the “official” employment rate doesn’t account for workers that have been switched… [...]

By: Census Hiring and Reporting Methods Minimize April Unemployment Numbers

Census Hiring and Reporting Methods Minimize April Unemployment Numbers — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:35:09 +0000

[...] by the way the government categorizes the unemployed. As Money Morning previously reported, if laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are in…, the numbers [...]

By: Economic Recovery Threatened by 8.5% Unemployment

Economic Recovery Threatened by 8.5% Unemployment — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:44:04 +0000

[...] But even that doesn’t tell the whole story. According to Money Morning research conducted in January, if you include people that the government doesn’t even count – such as unemployed farm workers, self-employed, and workers in private homes – the unemployment rate could reach as high as 20%. [...]

By: Kris BUnso

Kris BUnso — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:42:13 +0000

bail out will be too little too late. check the history books my friend, we are headed for a depression…..

By: James Yamaki

James Yamaki — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:17:06 +0000

Any way you spin the numbers, unemployment has skyrocketed in 2008. That is a fact and it is not going away for a while.

Comment 3 by Uncle B struck me.

Do you recall the bankruptcy of auto parts supplier Delphi? Delphi which was spinned off from GM had two separate entities: one in U.S. and the other in China.

GM funneled millions of dollars of its investment money into China to get it started because of low labor costs and other comparative economic advantages.

Well, when Dephi went bankrupt in the U.S. the talk was the Delphi operations in China will not be affected and will remain intact.

Now GM has a GM China producing Buicks etc. and doing lucrative business.

If GM U.S. goes bankrupt, will the bankruptcy affect GM China and will the assets of GM China be recovered in the bankruptcy? Our tax dollars are going to bail out GM, but through legal means will GM be able to keep its entity in China untouched?

According to Porter Stansberry, GM-US is going bankrupt because it is insolvent and have not been making money for the past 15 years. I think much of the money has been funneled to China to get the operations going there. And through legal protection it is able to keep it intact while the US entity goes bankrupt.

Going back to Delphi, is Delphi China still in business making parts for the auto sector with cheap Chinese labor at the expense of our high US labor?

Will this be the same direction GM heading? I see the same pattern evolving.

I can say these things because I witnessed the demise of the pineapple industry here in Hawaii. Both Dole Corporation and Del Monte Corporation left Hawaii for Thailand, Phillipines, and Costa Rica, respectively, because of cheap labor. Both Dole and Del Monte still exist. They are thriving in those countries. Do you hear of pineapple from Hawaii? It is gone. Basically, only one company is left and even sugar, our agriculture mainstay for one hundred years, went the way of pineapple. Only one sugar company is in business.

Hawaii pineapple and sugar workers were left out in the cold.

Most are working in the hotel industry now. My sugar plantation hometown is depressed because of lack of jobs. We don’t have any of the tourist business.

I am not saying it is good or bad. I am just stating my observations.

By: K. Anderson

K. Anderson — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:45:11 +0000

A new domino effect to all of this is Health Care. With continued unemployment and people not continuing their health care coverage. Elective surgeries will not be done, which is mostly the bread and butter of the hospitals. For Hospitals to stay in operations, they are starting to close their ER’s around the country, due to admitting patients that can not pay. The Hospitals can not continue to take on all this dept. Medicaid has helped with this burden in the past, but that is being cut around the country.

By: Black Monday Brings Massive Layoffs – Economists Say Some Jobs Could be Gone for Good

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:36:49 +0000

[...] Monday, the government’s recently released official unemployment number of 7.2%, already vastly understates the number of jobless Americans because it fails to account for “discouraged” and “unattached” workers who [...]