The 9.6 number is really quite misleading... when the real number is at least double that. And of course there is no consideration for underemployed / part timers who can't begin to make ends meet. We are in a Depression... real unemployment (without counting underemployment) is right around 20 percent.

More than a fair number of "democrats" used to howl over Bushco's abuse of bureau of labor statistics. Like so many other issues I continue to be amazed at what truths are OK to abuse if your party is doing it.

Neither Democrats or Republicans are honestly admitting the numbers / depth of our problems... therefore it's simply impossible to conclude anything except both Versailles protectionist parties are hell bent on not solving the problem until your wages compete with third world countries.

Both parties gave more tax breaks, bailed out the looters / banksters... we've done everything except demand hiring by initiating a myriad of needed productive national projects... real stimulus across the board, with real lasting returns. (fiber internet to every home, high speed rail, green grids and power generating infrastructure, etc.)

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

The employment numbers are up in China where corporations re-located most of the US-manufacturing capacity and thus any buying is really working, just in the wrong country. Blame the CofC for their programs to push US manufacturing overseas. They didn't care of the fact that these same workers were also buyers and they make choices with their pocketbook. Even Henry Ford realized that workers need to be paid enough to actually buy his product.

Note also that China has imposed at tariff on American chicken including 12% on Tyson chickens and we should re-rurn the favor with a 12% on Chinese-made toys since almost all US toy production has been sent overseas. The fact that China controls their currency should have been a tariff issue all along but China used the US-socialism of grain subsidities which reduces the cost of chicken feed as the lever.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Both sides WILL admit the depth of the problem of unemployment when the crime rate rises, as it surely must since people have a need to eat. It might not affect the rich politicians (i.e., the majority in both parties), because they live behind gated walls, but the rest of us will hear about it. Ted Rall has written about this on his blog and uses the 20 percent unemployment number. He thinks that 20 percent will be a permanent number, not a statistical blip, and he cites a huge spike in crime as the reason Britain expanded the dole. Our politicians' first instinct will be to hire more cops.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Nice try, but there is plenty of blame to go around for the decimation of American manufacturing jobs. The outsourcing of American jobs accelerated after approval and implementation of NAFTA under the Clinton Administration with the support of many Democrats. Now Clinton and Blanche Lincoln spend their time bashing American workers and the unions they have chosen to represent them.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Those who don't like unions should report to work on Monday (and Thanksgiving and Christmas and every week-end). It wasn't the American business that willinglyn decided to give employees days off, holidays, etc.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

What cassasndra said. I wondered when Senator Lincoln announced Triangulation Bill's campaign appearance for her if she thought that would help now.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Yes indeed, cassandra. Democrats are just like Republicans. Bush Sr. and Clinton joined forces and pushed NAFTA through... as happened in so many disastrous turns.

The last 35 years have been a tag team bipartisan effort to kill the American middle class for the sole benefit of the very rich.

In the early 70's, prior to the first oil crisis, which should have put us in a one track mindset to ween ourselves as far off oil as possible.... a single minimum wage earner brought home the purchasing power of someone earning 40k (20.00 per hour) today. In AR it now takes two heads of household working to come close to that earning power.

We desperately need to take all economic theory (and their proponents) of the last 35 years and burn it in the trash heap of misguided history.

It's time for us to get out of the war and intel business, while demanding fraudulent financial crooks go to jail, and build things again.. if for no other reasons than gainful employment and national projects which legitimately warrant some national pride / sense of direction.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Have to give Beebe credit for a much lower unemployment rate in AR than the national average. Arkansas has weathered the storm far better than most other places and it's thanks to him.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

>>Arkansas has weathered the storm far better than most other places and it's thanks to him.<<

Plus a billion or two from the feds which some morons in the lege wish to argue about.

.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

A couple of “good news” items, if I may:

► A growing number of U.S. manufacturers have begun bringing jobs back to the states. Among them, Ford, GE, Caterpillar, and NCR. Ford and some of its suppliers, for example, are bringing home 2,000 jobs from Mexico, Japan, and India. There’s a number of reasons: One of them is that wages in those countries and others have been going way up while U.S. wages have stayed flat or in some cases fallen. Take China: Wages for factory workers, bolstered by recent strikes, have jumped 15% a year there during the past decade.

Other reasons for bringing jobs home to the U.S.: (1) Shipping costs have gone up about 71% the past four years as a result of higher oil prices and cutbacks in ships and containers in the slump; (2) U.S. manufacturers are frustrated by the sometimes poor quality of goods made by foreign contractors; (3) They’re also pissed about theft of their intellectual property, and (4) They realize that long product-delivery cycles are making them less responsive to customer demand.

Not only are some American companies beginning to bring jobs back to the U.S., but a growing number of others who were planning to outsource abroad are rethinking the whole idea. The problems just cited, among others, are responsible for the rethinking.

► Tis true that U.S. manufacturing employment, after peaking at 19.4 million in 1978, is 11.6 million today. But not all those jobs were lost to outsourcing abroad. Automation also contributed to sizable job losses. And more than 2 million factory jobs have been cut in the recession alone. Yet, (and this may surprise you) the U.S. still had 21% of global manufacturing as recently as 2008, more than any other nation.

If ya take issue with any of this, yer fight is with Forbes, not me.

PS: One more thing about China: It’s beginning to experience a shortage of workers to staff its factories. One reason for the shortage is that the number of Chinese college graduates has jumped from 1 million in 2000 to more than 6 million this year, decreasing the pool of potential laborers. Or so says Forbes.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

That's all lovely and Forbes is forever looking for more pleasant ways to tell American workers..."you're screwed so get used to it because we've stacked the deck and there's nothing you can ever do about it."

However for all the benefits of playing international wage arbitrage the game is about to end. Why? It's not about Chinese college grads. It's about "oil we can afford to burn"

International trade requires huge quantities of fuel and it was instigated during a time of cheap oil. Those times are over. Local economies will return.

Let Jeff Rubin, the former Chief Economist of CIBC World Markets, explain how Pittsburgh steel made a comeback during the last run-up to Peak Oil. Ready for $7 gal gasoline? You better be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYuLjGQQ-jg

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Excellent talk by Rubin. Watched it a few weeks ago. Was in Amsterdam and Brussels a couple years ago and as I recall, gasoline was something like $6.50 a gallon there, even then. Afraid Rubin is right and that we’ll “get ours” soon enough.

As for Forbes, I think they do a pretty fair job of reminding American workers how they’ve been screwed, not only by bosses looking for cheap labor, but also by automation and a near depression. Can’t blame all the work loss on any one thing, as much as we might like to.

By whatever means, I’m glad to see jobs coming back to this country. A trickle now; hopefully a much heavier flow later. Must keep a positive attitude and never abandon hope.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

A lot of people blaming outsourcing the caused of high unemployment rate. Let's see what would happen next. as long as high technology is here, outsourcing would remain and will not just easily be gone away.

Outsourcing Philippines
www.outsourcing-services.net

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike