Crazy unemployment number

[Goodchild]

I was reading this article about a company that is closing it's business in North Dakota because it actually can't find enough employees to staff the company and I noticed two numbers that boggled the mind.

Here's the article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090316/ts_alt_afp/useconomyjobscompany

The crazy numbers are that it mentions that the US lost 651,000 jobs in February and then later mentions that the state of ND has a population of 640,000.

That just blew me away. We lost more jobs in one month than the number of people that live in North Dakota. A whole states-worth of jobs lost.

[Garnet]

Wow.

On another note, I'll bet if that company opened here there would be lines several blocks long of applicants. Unless they pay super shitty wages. Hell, even then, I bet there'd be lines around the block.

[Christina]

My partner grew up in North Dakota and he and I were talking about this last night and it didn't surprise him at all. He spent his early years on and off a reservation and then another decade as a foster kid on ranches. He said exactly what the article does and thinks that the vast majority of people have no idea of just how sparsely the state is populated and how much of an agricultural and ranching focus it has. Kids go to school for animal husbandry and farming techniques, not tech or office jobs. There aren't a whole lot of people that want to migrate to a place with those kind of winters either.

It was kind of cute when I first met him. He kept asking me if I thought that completely unrelated people with the same last names were all part of the same family and it seemed like such a naive thing to think. Eventually I figured out that there were only about 15 last names in the part of the state where he came from if you didn't count the native americans and it was a reasonable assumption for him at first.

[Joykins]

The free fall in employment numbers is freaky. There are some places where the unemployment rate is nearly 20%.

Here it is something like 3.9%. The inequality boggles my mind also.

[Ray Moscow]

The numbers are going to get a lot worse, too, from all indications.

One of my colleagues was bitching yesterday about his tiny raise this year -- I told him that I wasn't too bothered because 1) I still have a job and 2) I actually got a small raise, instead of a cut like some people I know.

The seriousness of the situation hasn't sunk in for most people yet.

[sohy]

The unemployment rate in Georgia is about 8.6% and it's expected to become higher in the near future. I have also noticed that this recession/depression has hit some areas much more than others. Parts of Florida look like the 1930s. Cleveland and Detroit are horror stories if what I've read in the NYTimes is accurate. I think a lot depends on what type of business was the engine for growth. Atlanta metro was very dependent on retail, real estate and construction and that's probably to be why our unemployment rate keeps rising.

[Joykins]

I know people who have got 5-15% pay cuts. I have my wages frozen.

Deflationary spiral, here we come. Whoop. Also we need a new car, fuckitall.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

My wages are frozen with the possibility of furloughs coming and going, depending on which politician is too chicken to address the issue with any candor. I'm just glad my EQ2 subs are paid up through next February.

[sohy]

Deflationary spiral, here we come.

Maybe not. The latest PPI was mildly inflationary and the fed just announced it was buying up about a trillion dollars worth of bad assets and long term T bills. Printing more money usually causes inflation. Does it not? I hear some people screaming about deflation but outside of housing, I don't see the evidence. Do you?

[BWE]

Just 5 minutes ago I had to pay an unexpected $3,500.00 bill ... of my son's.


Grrrr.

[Joykins]

Declining wages are part of deflation. Oil / gas prices have also deflated.

[sohy]

Declining wages are part of deflation. Oil / gas prices have also deflated.

True, but it seems as if there are still a lot of uncertainties out there. Btw, oil prices are rising again, and I've noticed food prices are going up. Even the failing car manufacturers raised their prices last month. It was in the PPI report.

Of course deflation may end up being the primary problem. The newest Ga. unemployment rate is up to 9.3% That's the highest number since the year they started collecting data here. I think that was in 1976. It's definitely a scary time to live. It's also an exciting time. Will humans respond in a rational way and find a way out of this situation? I think the jury's still out. What do y'all think?

[Ray Moscow]

Yeah, a lot of consumer prices are edging back up now. Strange, really, because demand has to be falling.

[premjan]

All the injected cash in the market.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

It's definitely a scary time to live. It's also an exciting time. Will humans respond in a rational way and find a way out of this situation? I think the jury's still out. What do y'all think?

I think the planet is going to end up glowing in the dark for a few thousand years.