Unemployment

Right now the current "official" unemployment rate is 8.5% which is the worst since 1983. This in and of itself is really bad news. However, that number only figures those who are out of work and looking for a job. The number of those who are underemployed is also rising. Underemployed are those people working part time hours who want to be working full time. In this rough economy we also have many people who are out of work but have given up looking for a job. If you add these two groups to the totals you have 15.6% of the US population that wants better employment. It's going to be tough for our economy to recover with that many people struggling to make ends meet.

In my last post I mentioned that as consumer confidence rises, spending increases which will boost our economy. This can only happen if people actually have the money to spend. If 3 out of every 20 people are struggling with under or unemployment it will be tough to get any stimulus in the economy. I believe that if we see much economic growth this year it will be government manufactured through all the "stimulus" packages that we'll be paying for for generations....more on that later.