The biggest pessimists agree on at least this one point. It's not a matter of if but a matter of when. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the national unemployment rate will continue to peak over 10 percent before reprieve settles in sometime next year.
But 14 states have already reached that milestone. In August, Michigan had the dishonor of the highest in the nation at 15.2 percent. Some portions of the state even mark a jobless rate of (yikes!) more than 20 percent.
As sad as this is, it is not surprising considering the state's claim to fame as the motor capital of the U. S. of A. Plus, Michigan has claimed the highest unemployment rate in the country for more than a year now.
My state, Illinois, is ranked at the 37th highest with 10 percent even.
Other states include Nevada, Rhode Island, Oregon, California, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Georgia. Even the nation's capital cracked the list, tying with Kentucky at the number 44th spot with 11.1 percent.
The national average now is at 9.7 percent, up from 9.4 percent in July. The highest it has been in a generation, at least 26 years.
Is it supposed to get worse before it gets better? The Columbia Journalism Review said these numbers are just a tip of the iceberg, as "it just begins to capture the true misery of joblessness out there." The article pointed out that the numbers fail to represent the percentage of people, or U-6 data, who have become so discouraged that they have quit looking for work or who have quit looking for work in the last few weeks for whatever reason they may have. (The August U-6 number is 16.8, up a half-point from last month and nearly six whole percentage points from last year.)
Yeah, there are definite grounds for being pessimistic these days.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment