Tuesday, July 14, 2009

More Recession Woes

Last week while writing about various aspects of the recession, I mentioned that the real unemployment rate was closer to 16.5% or about 25,000,000 people who need jobs. Today both the Wall Street Journal and American Thinker add details to that statistic.

For example, the average work week for rank and file workers (80% of the work force) fell to 33 hours, the lowest since the government started tracking the data in 1964. Also the length of official unemployment increased to 24.5 weeks, the longest ever recorded. (This record keeping started in 1948.) Another unpleasant fact is that over the next five years the net increase in the labor force (new entrants less those who retire) will be about 1,936,600 per year. So as we try to find jobs for the people who lost them, we will have to also find almost 2 million additional ones for new workers each year for five years. These economic writers expect double digit unemployment to continue well into the future.

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