Ugh. Are you ready for the first real signs of the econopocalypse?

[elfs]

The U-6 Unemployment Rate stands at 13.5%.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has several levels of unemployment. U-6 includes the unemployed ("unemployed" by the government covers only those who would actively seek employment), those who have given up seeking employment, plus all marginally attached workers (people who would be working if jobs were available), plus total employed part time for economic reasons (those who would take full time employment if it were available, but have had to settle for part-time work), as a percent of the civilian labor force.

13.5 fucking percent. The highest ever recorded.

To give you an idea of how big that jump is, here are the U-6's for December from 1994 through 2008:

Year	U-6
1994	9.7
1995	9.7
1996	9.2
1997	8.2
1998	7.3
1999	6.9
2000	6.7
2001	9.3
2002	9.6
2003	9.6
2004	9.1
2005	8.4
2006	7.8
2007	8.7
2008	13.5

That's a heckuva legacy there, Georgie.

Comments

[darrelx.livejournal.com]

Why lay all the blame on George Bush?

Why not blame the Mortgage Crisis... which WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED if Barney frank and his compatriots listened to the Republicans in 2005 who were calling for regulation of Fannie & Freddie? Why not blame Nancy Pelosi's House which failed to pass ANY significant legislation the past two years whatsoever?

I'm not saying that the blame lies solely on the shoulders of the Dem's in congress... but it certainly doesn't lie solely on George Bush, either.

[tagryn]

The lack of data before '94 is a real liability to that measure for comparison purposes. If we look at the unemployment historical data going back to 1948, noting that U6 and U3 track together very well, we see that the December '08 unemployment level is still below that of the 1992 levels and significantly below that of '82-'83.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Yah know, I really don't need to see how overwhelming my competition is when I am looking for work myself. It's very depressing.

That said, got any numbers on WA state or King County?

This includes me, actually

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I've only had temp work for four years now.

[rand0m1.livejournal.com]

Four jobs in the last 8 years and I've probably spent as much time unemployed as I have employed. *sigh*

Edited to add....
Three of the four mentioned went out of business. The fourth left due to the fact that you should never work for your FiL if you wish to stay out of prison for murder or out of the nut house.