..."high unemployment may be an enduring feature of the United States' economy...
...The November report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, which translates to over 15.1 million unemployed...
Over 40 percent of currently unemployed workers have been out of a job for over six months...
The numbers look even worse if we consider the underemployed, which includes potential workers who have given up looking for a job or the 9 percent of the labor force that is made up of part-time workers who would prefer to be working full-time...
At least 2.5 million people gave up looking for work in the last year alone...
...rather than falling, private-industry wages are currently on the rise, up nearly 60 cents per hour...
...conservatives in the United States have placed the blame for high unemployment on the shoulders of President Barack Obama, arguing that his administration's liberal agenda has complicated the recovery...
But the statistics suggest otherwise. Again, corporate profits and consumer spending are fine...
Indeed, it's the sector in which the government has most directly intervened -- health care -- that has maintained the most robust job growth over the past two years...
...And don't go blaming job losses on illegal immigrants taking jobs from documented workers: Latino immigrants have left the country in large numbers since the start of the financial crisis...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/05/10_percent_unemployment_forever?page=0,0
...The November report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, which translates to over 15.1 million unemployed...
Over 40 percent of currently unemployed workers have been out of a job for over six months...
The numbers look even worse if we consider the underemployed, which includes potential workers who have given up looking for a job or the 9 percent of the labor force that is made up of part-time workers who would prefer to be working full-time...
At least 2.5 million people gave up looking for work in the last year alone...
...rather than falling, private-industry wages are currently on the rise, up nearly 60 cents per hour...
...conservatives in the United States have placed the blame for high unemployment on the shoulders of President Barack Obama, arguing that his administration's liberal agenda has complicated the recovery...
But the statistics suggest otherwise. Again, corporate profits and consumer spending are fine...
Indeed, it's the sector in which the government has most directly intervened -- health care -- that has maintained the most robust job growth over the past two years...
...And don't go blaming job losses on illegal immigrants taking jobs from documented workers: Latino immigrants have left the country in large numbers since the start of the financial crisis...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/05/10_percent_unemployment_forever?page=0,0