US unemployment rate reaches 5.5%

Cosmo has it right. There's nothing we can do but make sure we're prepared and keep on living--panicking only makes it worse.

The jobs Americans wouldn't do can be done and most likely would be done by those 5% who need it.

Problems are only created when people ignore what's going on for far too long and give justifications for those who falsely pull heart strings to garner attention that they rightfully do not deserve.

12 million people is very close to 5% of the total population. (unless I did my math wrong---possible. ha.)

But I agree that we shouldn't panic. Just do your best and keep an eye out for worse things to come.

they really need to pass unemployment extensions. nevermind a single $600 check.

Unemployment since 1992:

1992 - 7.5
1993 - 6.9
1994 - 6.1
1995 - 5.6
1996 - 5.4
1997 - 4.9
1998 - 4.5
1999 - 4.2
2000 - 4.0
2001 - 4.7
2002 - 5.8
2003 - 6.0
2004 - 5.5
2005 - 5.1
2006 - 4.6
2007 - 4.8

A Recession is 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth. We have not had one quarter of negative growth yet. We have come close, but not yet. And people have been SCREAMING recession for well over two years.

In order to get the economy moving again we need a large number of people to start spending again.

We can either:

a) give everyone MORE credit cards

b) handout a one time check for $300 to everyone

I doubt any of that will have much of an impact.

A few better ideas would be:

a) rewrite the bankruptcy laws to make it EASIER to totally discharge consumer debts. Spending $600 a month just on minimum payments to VISA is money that could be used to pay (with cash, not credit) goods and services. Plus a large portion of those expenses on credit cards these days aren't diamonds and expensive Parisian vacations, but medical bills, gas, groceries, hell, even rent payments. Credit has supplemented actual wages in 2008. The reason most people aren't buying anything is because massive chucks of their paycheck are going to housing costs (inflated mortgages/rents) and massive credit card bills. If we can discharge a large portion of that debt (and the subsequent "late fees," "over limit fees" and 29.9% APR's that will free up a lot of money for people to spend.

b) make all medical debts immediately dischargeable. Instead of paying 50 percent of your monthly paycheck trying desperately to pay down your $250,000 chemotherapy bill -- allow it to be discharged!

c) Put a fracking emergency cap on mortgages! Yeah, I know, everyone who got a mortgage is evil and deserves to die a slow painful death (according to Republicans anyway) but "punishing" dumb people who got talked into bad adjustable rate loans (so asshole loan officers could get a big commission) isn't doing much of anything except fracking up the entire economy. We can lift the cap later when times improve (like 10 years from now) but all those new rates are doing is just draining billions of poetential dollars out of the economy and shoveling it into the pockets of a few banks and crooked mortgage brokers.

karrde -- do you think the economy is doing well? It sounds like it.

The airlines which are declaring bankruptcy for the 2nd and 3rd time might disagree with you on how "great" things are.

The filiers who just saw the average price of a plane ticket quadruple would disagree.

So would the truck drivers who are going bankrupt because of skyrocketing fuel prices.

So would the millions of people who are losing their homes because of the still on-going mortgage-crisis.

So would the millions (gets worse every year!) of people forced to declare bankruptcy for....medical bills!

So would the students graduating from college with tens of thousands of dollars in loan debt as tutition creeps upward higher and higher year after year after year.

So would the blue collar (and white too) workers who have seen their wages effectively frozen for the last 20 years and the cost of living has steadily risen nonstop --- while at the same time their company benefits have been reduced or eliminated all together.

Ha ha. Goodness, exactly what would a "bad" economy look like if this one is considered "good"?

If the government would stop forcing us to spend so much money on medical bills and fake medicine, people would have alot more money to spend. Let's see if the next president truly cares about us and ignores the medical industry.

Here is a thought: Everyone quit buying more on credit than you can payback. Live with in your means.

The borrower is slave to the lender.

crob80227

I did not say the economy is great or anything.

I own my own business. I live in a modest home( ie. I live in the "bad" part of town, in a 1930's, need alot of repairs home)

I know everyone whose business depends on fuel is being hit and hit hard because of fuel prices. Some of my relatives are in trucking.

Whose wages have been frozen for twenty years?

The unemployment rate is a politically charged bullshit statistic, like most econ statistics.

Don't believe it when it's high or low because it's not representative of the population at all.

First off, they go door to door asking people if they're employed. If they say no, they ask are you looking for work? If you say yes, you are considered unemployed.

But if you say no, have been laid off or are cyclically unemployed, you don't get counted.

You only count as unemployed if you are frictionally unemployed, as in you are between jobs and are having a hard time finding one.

Keep in mind that number only represents people claiming unemployment benefits. It does not count people who do not qualify for unemployment, or who's unemployment ran out.

Dave Ramsey, eh?

Here's a thought: PAY PEOPLE A LIVING WAGE!

Credit is supplementing abnormally low wages.

As the gap between the cost of living and stagnant wages keeps getting wider and wider every single year the only way people are surviving is by supplementing their income with credit cards and home equity loans.

Basically, if an American's wage goes up one penny then the cost of living (rent, gas, groceries, healthcare, insurance, utilties) have gone up 50 cents! The next year your wage doesn't go up at all, but the cost of living went up another 10 cents! You just keep earning less and less every year even though your earning the same wage. Almost everybody is just a paycheck away from disaster. The trite answer is, "Just save more!" But when your dancing as fast as you can just to keep from falling behind trying to save anything is easier said then done.

Wages stay the same and cost of living keeps rising. You can't do that indefinitely in any economy and the only reason ours was able to go this long with such a huge gap between income and COL expenses is the flood of credit cards to everyone in America.

Another huge problem is the massive layoffs in the manufacturing sector and nowadays the white collar sector.

When you get laid off you get a fraction of your income in unemployment (for a breif period of time) -- not enough to pay the mortgage, the insurance, the gas bill, the grocery bill and pay for little Timmy's sprained ankle. People have been using credit cards to survive, not to go on trips to Paris.

And if it wasn't job loss then it was a medical problem.

Great! Your insurance covered 60 percent of your chemo. Now all you're responsible for is $35,000. Right now. Pay us now or we'll ruin your credit. Oh, and you'll need to take these meds too. Those come to (with insurance) only $277 per month. Pay us. Now! Or die slowly of cancer. Your choice.

What choice do people have but to put it on the credit card?

We need to change our thinking about debt and recognize that a huge portion of this debt is just cost of living (not luxury items) and treat it that way. That is to say make it more dischargable under our bankruptcy laws.

1. Give tax breaks to companies that hire Americans in 2008
2. Prevent pensions funds and ETFs and mutual funds from investing in commodities unless they are willing to take delivery of the physical commodity
3. Support a stronger dollar by slowly raising interest rates, we have become spoilt by low interest rates.
4. End the military operations in Iraq
5. Increase spending on education, the US is falling further and further behind other nations, teacher pay needs to be increased so that more people are attracted to the field.
6. Increase mileage standards to 50 MPG on all vehicles by 2015, if you can't do it then don't sell vehicles.
7. Eliminate all ethanol subsidies and import ethanol from Brazil
8. Eliminate federal taxes on all who make $25k of less annually
9. Decrease military spending to pay for tax reduction on the poor
10. 10 year tax holiday for new manufacturing facilities built in the USA.

And one for luck
11. Eliminate Sarbanes Oxley

keep it up and our unemployment rate will be as high as Frances.

crob80227 -

I am genuinely interested in reading some stats about wages from the past twenty years or so:
can you post a link to some please.

Need we anymore problems than we already have? This government really does need to change everything up.

I was laid off due to budget cuts (now called "Downsizing") and have had one Helluva time finding work due to this beat-up economy.
I'm not in the mood to argue whether it's real.
It's real enough for me.

Get ready for Bad Times. Have a plan, plant a garden, hoard staple foods, buy a gun, and don't trust the normal news.

The money we're making is worth less than ever before, and now not only are we making far less than we need but the work available to make a less-than-decent living is shrinking fast. And this is supposed to be the "Land Of Oppertunity"?

The struggle will increase tremendously among the working class people. "Hard times are coming, get ready and hold on to your ass."- Mom

SHOULD WE BE SUPRISED ABOUT IT? OUR GOVERNMENT IS SPENDING THE TAX PAYERS MONEY TRYING TO FIGHT A USELESS WAR OVERSEAS. AND ON TOP OF THAT, WE'RE IN AN ELECTION YEAR, AND EVERYONE KNOWS THAT OIL PRICES ARE SKY HIGH ASOF RIGHT NOW. SO WERE SO SHOCKED THAT THE U.S. JOBLESS RATE IS SKY HIGH. THIS SHOULDN'T BE A SHOCK TO US, BECAUSE OF THE WHY THE ECONOMY IS. AND ALSO TE WAY THIS GOVERNMENT IS RUN. A BUNCH OF MERCENARIES (I.E., BLACKWATER) FIGURING OUT WAYS TO GET THERES. IS TEAD OF FIGURING OUT HOW WE CAN GET OUR. I JUST RECENTLY SAW ON THE NEWS, ABOUT HOW SOME PEOPLE WANT BE GETTING THEIR TAX CHECKS BACK. TO NO SUPRISE, THIS GOVERNMENT IS AT ITS DEMISE.

Yes unemployment is up but you are not a statistic and there are still thousands of 75K, 100K and 150K jobs out there. try these sites:

http://www.realmatch.com
http://www.monster.com
http://www.hotjobs.com

Try and you will succeed!

I think the time has come to recognize that America is no longer "#1" (if it ever was in the first place, that is) and that it is no longer the land of opportunity.