US Unemployment Stays at 9.7%: 14.9 Million Americans Out of Work

Hugh: Yeah! These numbers are bad news but no doubt there are those that see it as a good sign. Economists and labor experts feel that the economy has to create at least 100,000 jobs per month just to absorb those that are entering the labor force. That leaves another 15 million or so that have to get jobs. Notice that they're 8.8 million part time workers. Up 500,000 from January.

Consumer spending is what drives the economy. Not temporary census workers. Also the optimism over the increase in temp workers is misplaced. I don't believe that temps are a leading indicator as they've been in past recessions. I believe that temps are going to be more the rule than the exception because companies don't have to pay benefits and only use them as needed. I don't see any data distinguishing temps from the 8.8 million part time workers. I'd have to dig deep for that. 

"Eight months into the much-touted recovery, the economy should be adding jobs, not losing jobs at a slower pace," he said. "No study of economic history could yield a conclusion other than that the U.S. economy walks along the precipice of a double-dip recession."

A net loss of 36,000 jobs in February which would have been 51,000 without the addition of temporary census workers.

The Toronto Stock Exchange moved up 113 points on this news and the Canadian Dollar  move up 0.39c  to .9742 US. 

The April crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was ahead $1.67 to $81.88 US a barrel during morning trade.

ACP: They often move up on news such as this. The markets even move up when job cuts are announced. It's bad news for workers but good news for certain markets. The market often doesn't correlate to the entire economic picture. What's good for the market isn't often good for the worker and vice versa. Also oil prices are more often than not based on speculation and "futures" than they are on actual economic conditions.

The problem with the BLS unemployment report is that the percentages only reflect what happened in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. As indicated in this story the unemployment rate is more like 16.8 percent.

If what economists and labor experts say is true--that the economy needs to create 100, 000 jobs per month just to absorb workers entering the work force--then that means that an average of 516, 000 new jobs have to be created every month for two years in order to absorb these workers and to re-employ 10 million currently unemployed workers.

The bottom line is that  government can't create jobs only small business can.  If they want to stimulate the economy and job growth, they need to stimulate small business. 

When you're already heavily laden in deficits, more government jobs, which also come with a pension and health care bill don't really solve the problem.  Infrastructure maintenance and replacement is definitely needed, but you also need to stimulate jobs that create wealth.  Infrastructure spending should be part of every annual budget to look care of important maintenance needs and replacements.  Without an annual budget for infrastructure and actually acting on it, infrastructure will eventually crumble.  It may already be too late.  Look at that bridge in Minneapolis.  How many more are nearing that point.  We won't speak of sewers, the power grid or even oil pipelines.  

There are tons of larger projects that could have been taken on during this recession but a lot of the money was just wasted. 

Government waste is not just an Obama problem, it happens all over the world.  Having worked in Ottawa, I am well aware of how the system operates.  It's scary, it's a good thing most people are ignorant of how it works lol.

Unemployment is reaching a critical mass that is worrisome for it may translate into public unrest and destabilise not only the government of the US, it may compromise its democracy all together and plunge it into third world like nation.

Major reforms are needed as well as restructuring and maybe even redistributing the wealth more equally, letting small business strive and create jobs rather then multi nationals that cut jobs and make only a hand full of people very rich, leading the majority into despair.

Systemic and structural problems will not be cured in a short time frame, and so long as the US government remains broken, no certain path to correction has even begun. We're living on momentum and fumes and surviving for one reason: all things are equal.

Jim: I like your "fumes" analogy . . . . I'm quite thankful that I'm the age that I am. U.S. kids are real soft right now and they're gonna get in shape the hard way before they hit my age. That's if they live that long . . . .

Rory, Do you have one of those tents? Looks like Army surplus. You're right about the domestic economy being primarily consumer driven. Under current conditions and forecasts for longer outlook, look for deflationary pressure on consumer goods. As you've noted, we've got nothing left to spend.

nanute: JEEZ! You mean you actually agree with me on something! You're not setting me up for something are you? I've got a tent in my garage. I'll be using it soon no doubt . . . .

Now the Administration can talk about jobs saved or created but, one indicator that is universal is Unemployment rates.  Pres Obama said that if we didn't pass the Stimulus crisis would turn in to catastrophe.  if we passed the bill the unemployment rate would not go above 8%.  Obama said that there were shovel ready projects and the most impact on jobs would be in the first 6 months. 

Folks seem to have forgotten the Presidents words.  Seems now they are using other indicators to prove their stimulus is working... well for me I will stick to what he said originally.  Unemployment is 9.7% close to the number he said if we didn't pass the stimulus. 

Harry Reid has been reduced to saying job loses are good.... in that the numbers are smaller than projected (not really). 

Political double talk is one of the things this administration does well.

Thanks for your well done article

Albert: Most appreciated! This is a bad economic time for America. Millions of Americans are completely tapped out and have no emergency  financial resources to fall back on. This "recession" is more like a "depression" in my opinion and I don't see light at the end of what will turn out to be a very dark tunnel.

It didn't take an economic genius to see this thing coming and understand how bad it was going to get especially in light of the housing bubble. I don't see any way out for a long time to come if ever. There are just too many problems with the American economy nowadays. When you have a 4 percent unemployment rate in the federal government and a 27 percent unemployment rate in commercial construction, it's a bad sign.

Nanute: Just going by BLS stats. I will say this however: Full employment as defined by economists can be in the 5 to 6 percent unemployment range. Higher or lower depending on who you're talking to. There have been very few cases over the years that unemployment was actually in the 4 percent range. More like 5 percent and above.

Something the BLS does not cover is underemployment... I know many companies (mine included) are working reduced hours and nowhere is this included in the numbers.

As you have so accurately pointed out Rory things are bad, and are worse that it appears.

Spyder: Much of that info is there on the BLS site. You'll find it in one of the tables that lists average hours worked or average work week.