USA Unemployment Rises to 9.5% and Broader Rate Spikes to 16.5%
July 2nd, 2009
The American economy lost 467,000 jobs in June, putting the official unemployment rate at 9.5%, a 25 year high. However, the news gets worse as the broader unemployment rate, which includes those that have given up looking for work, has surged to 16.5%. That is nearly one in six people out of work!
Other disturbing economic news has come out recently –This year only 20%, one in five, of new college graduates had a job upon graduation! That is down from 50% just a couple years ago.
The reason this recession, soon to be depression, has hit us sharper, harder, and faster than any in living memory is the loss of good industrial jobs and the rise of the so called “service economy”. I know firsthand from my days as a financial executive at a major computer component maker that factories are hard to close, but service jobs can be eliminated in days. Meaning that as factories have been moved to Asia, and local economies made more dependent on easy to eliminate service jobs, it allows for more intense downward economic trends. A factory is worth millions, even tens of millions of dollars or more, so a corporation does not want to see it idle. However, there is nothing like that holding back the termination of service employees. In short, the decline of American-made products has put the US in a situation where we are no longer of in control of our economic future.
To hide this distinct, negative change to our economy, the government has encouraged bubbles in tech stocks and housing prices to artificially stimulate the economy and consumption. The hangover from these booms will show the truth about America’s economic decline – even a modern economy needs industrial jobs.
The good news is that we can each truly make a difference by checking labels and purchasing products made in America. Every item bought that is made in the US keeps folks off the unemployment line that much longer.
Todd Lipscomb
Founder of MadeinUSAForever.com, your source for products made in the USA.
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 8:52 pmand is filed under Uncategorized.
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