Comments on: California unemployment rate kills hopes for a recovery http://loanworkout.org/2009/08/california-unemployment-rate-kills-hopes-for-a-recovery/ Loan Modification & Home Loan News Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:10:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Glenn Atias http://loanworkout.org/2009/08/california-unemployment-rate-kills-hopes-for-a-recovery/#comment-16318 Glenn Atias Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:30:12 +0000 http://loanworkout.org/?p=5464#comment-16318 The reported unemployment statistic (the one everybody pays attention to) uses a method that started in 1994. In that method, anyone who has exhausted UI benefits and has gotten so discouraged they stopped looking for work is discounted altogether! When we use the old methodology (the one used in the 1930's) that simply considers: Are you eligible to work, and are you working yes/no, we find that unemployment by that truer measure is over 18%. And at the height of the Great Depression, it was 24%. So we are very close, and indeed in some cities in the US, we are already in Great Depression territory on unemployment. Perhaps the biggest untold story of our day is just how huge the unemployment crisis really is. The media is barely touching it, doesn't seem to want to go there at all. The reported unemployment statistic (the one everybody pays attention to) uses a method that started in 1994. In that method, anyone who has exhausted UI benefits and has gotten so discouraged they stopped looking for work is discounted altogether!

When we use the old methodology (the one used in the 1930′s) that simply considers: Are you eligible to work, and are you working yes/no, we find that unemployment by that truer measure is over 18%. And at the height of the Great Depression, it was 24%.

So we are very close, and indeed in some cities in the US, we are already in Great Depression territory on unemployment. Perhaps the biggest untold story of our day is just how huge the unemployment crisis really is. The media is barely touching it, doesn’t seem to want to go there at all.

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