Summertime . . . and the living is tighter
June. Is there a better time to be alive in Minnesota? It’s a great time for just about anything, including starting a blog.
What I hope to do with this blog:
- Present interesting information that is current and relevant to our region (the Greater Twin Cities United Way region includes the usual seven-county metro area plus Chisago and Isanti counties).
- Dispel some myths-mostly around people and statistics.
- Help you learn about Greater Twin Cities United Way-what we do and why.
- Have fun!
Mostly I’ll deal with serious issues, but everyone needs a mental health break now and then, so I’ll include the occasional leavening under the guise of “Work-Life Balance.”
Data note: I’m sure most of you saw that the new national unemployment stats are out-the unemployment rate is now 9.4%, up from 8.9% in April. But that’s only the official unemployment rate. If you don’t read past the first few paragraphs, you miss the finer detail:
The unemployment rate counts only individuals who are actively looking for work-that’s about 14.5 million people. If you add in the 9.1 million people who are working part-time because their hours have been reduced or that’s all they can get (usually referred to as involuntary part-time workers), and the 2.2 million discouraged workers (who want to work and are available for work but aren’t counted as unemployed because they haven’t actively looked for work in the last four weeks), the unemployment rate stands at 16.4%. This is sometimes referred to as the real unemployment rate.
I found this really cool graphic at the Wall Street Journal, that puts our current recession and unemployment figures in historical context. Note that in the first half of 1983, when unemployment rates were above 10%, the recession was officially over. What I glean from this is that even after the recession officially ends, the unemployment rate will likely continue to stay high for at least six months.
I can’t end on such a bleak note. So….
Final Comment: Last night I was reading Jim Gilbert’s Minnesota Nature Notes for the first week of June, and I learned that turtles are out and away from their water in this first part of the month, seeking higher nesting grounds. Keep an eye out-they cross a lot of roads.
Great post, Liz. Thank you for pointing out the “real” unemployment rate. That’s a very eye-opening statistic.
I notice that the REAL unemployment rates are not gven out too often. Just how much sugar coating is going on with these numbers to make it look better than it really is. Keep an eye on these things, would you please Liz, and give folks an update every so often.
Just curious – how does Minneapolis rate with other major US cities for unemployment? We’ve got some baddies out here in CA.
Wow! With these REAL numbers (coupled with the working poor), US is looking more like some of those “Third World” countries we like to feel sorry for.
By the way, I love the “Cool Graphics”. It makes me feel a little optimistic….because I see recessions come dime-a-dozen. If we pulled out of it before, again, and again, this too shall end.
[...] are also broader measures of unemployment (I’ve talked about this before). So if you include discouraged workers the unemployment rate goes up to 10.7%. And if you add in [...]