UNEMPLOYMENT RATE JUMPS TO 8.1%

The unemployment rate for the United States jumped up to 8.1 percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting employers slashed 651,000 jobs. Both figures were worse than analysts expected. The net loss of 651,000 jobs in February came after even deeper payroll reductions in the prior two months, according to revised figures. The economy lost 681,000 jobs in December and another 655,000 in January.

Employers are shrinking their work forces at alarming clip and are turning to other ways to slash costs — including trimming workers' hours, freezing wages or cutting pay — because the recession has eaten into their sales and profits.

One of the major differences from other Recessions has been that the job losses are across the board. Construction companies eliminated 104,000 jobs. Factories axed 168,000. Retailers cut nearly 40,000. Professional and business services got rid of 180,000, with 78,000 jobs lost at temporary-help agencies. Financial companies reduced payrolls by 44,000. Leisure and hospitality firms chopped 33,000 positions.

This recession (Which may actually be a depression) has fallen into a vicious cycle in which all the economy's negative problems feed on each other, worsening the downward spiral.

The True State of Employment

Jobless rate

The other day I heard George Will pontificate that the unemployment rate of 8% is better than the 10% unemployment this nation faced during the recession of the early 80's. Yes it's true that today the United States is approaching an official uneployment rate of 8%, but we are not using the same methodology to determine the unemployment rate that was used in 1980. The methedology has been changed by both Reagan and Clinton. If the methodology used in 1980, before the Reagan Administration first changed it to hide the depth of that era's deep recession, were applied, it would be 17% today, or one in seven workers

Even still the number of jobless American workers receiving unemployment checks rose to the highest level since the government began keeping records in 1967. The Labor Department is reporting that the number of Americans drawing jobless benefits for a week or longer rose to 4,776,000 in the week ended Jan. 17, the latest data available.

This number eclipses the prior mark set in November 1982, when 4,713,000 million Americans drew benefits.

Americans who moved to collect their first unemployment checks rose for the third consecutive week, to 588,000, according to a government report released Thursday. The number of Americans filing for unemployment claims has surged by 61% from this time a year ago. The AP notes that the results “were worse than analysts expected.”

Unemployment claims "surged last week"

The final week of the Bush Administration was a bad one for the U.S. Economy as the number of workers lining up for jobless benefits surged. In addition the number of new housing starts and permits hit record lows for the month of December. This is all evidence of an acceleration of the economy's sinking deeper into recession.

First time applications for state unemployment insurance benefits increased to a seasonally adjusted 589,000 in the week ended January 17 from a revised 527,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

This was the highest level of initial claims since a matching reading in the week of December 20 and beat analysts' forecasts for a rise to 540,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 524,000 the week before.

The last time claims were higher was in 1982, when they notched a weekly rise of 612,000.

Jobless claims jump

The number of initial jobless claims rose to the highest level since September 2001, the Labor Department reported this morning.

First-time filings rose by 32,000 to 516,000 last week. The four-week moving average of new claims rose to 491,000, the highest level since March 1991.

The number of continuing jobless claims soared by 65,000 to 3.89 million, the highest figure since 1983.