The QiRanger Adventures

Broken Economy

I woke up this morning and started my daily routine… that being perusing the news feeds. I gave a short little chortle when I read this from Yahoo! News.

New jobless claims rose more than expected last week, while the number of workers continuing to filing claims for unemployment benefits topped 6.1 million.

Both figures are fresh evidence layoffs persist amid a weak job market that is not expected to rebound anytime soon.

The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment compensation rose to a seasonally adjusted 640,000, up from a revised 613,000 the previous week. That was slightly above analysts’ expectations of 635,000.

I’m astonished that people think that unemployment statistics would do anything but go up, given recent news that Intel, Yahoo!, and other major employers are still conducting layoffs. Furthermore, this number is actually a lot higher that is being reported.

I say that because unemployment stats stem from those that, in part, claim unemployment benefits. There are many in the US that have been without work for so long, that they can no longer claim such benefits. Furthermore, there are many in the US, that cannot claim benefits as well, since they were self-employed.

If I had to venture a guess, I’d say the actual number of those without jobs in the US is closer to two or three times this amount. That’s the real America as we face this crisis. The banks are far worse off than what’s being reported and the US is on the brink of a complete economic downfall.