U.S. unemployment jumps to 8.5

Friday evening   , April 3, 2009


U.S. unemployment has jumped from 8.1 % in February to 8.5 % in
March. This was expected but it nonetheless is not a welcome sign. It means that the rate will very likely peak well over 10 % even as the economy begins the path to recovery.

Unemployment in places like Detroit and Dearborn Michigan has now reached 14.6 % and its 12.2 % in Riverside, San Berndino, Ontario California in the outskirts of Los Angeles At L.A. Long Beach its 11 % and in Salem Massachusetts its 12.1 %. Since the recession began 5.1 million job losses have occurred and two thirds of them have been in the past five monthes. there are now 13.2 million people unemployed. The unemployment rate among blacks & African Americans is 13.1 % and among Hispanics 10.7 %.

Congress should pass a stimulative budget asap.The money needs to be flowing to the places where it is needed.
The G20 meeting was successful in certain respects in getting some useful agreement on pumping money into the IMF (although if they continue to dole it out as in the past with ridiculous monetarist adjustment policies imposed on recipients it won't do much good.) There was also some useful agreement on reregulation. But the size of the stimulus agreed to , particularly once you deduct double counting and net out monies lost from other programs is quite simply too small to do the job that is necessary. We will see in the coming months how high unemployment rises in Europe.

Judging by what has happened in North America and despite the presence of automatic stabilizers in some countries I still expect double digit unemployment in places like France and Germany.