How many unemployed do you know?

What's missing from the 'official' (crap) numbers are (1) Unemployed who have simply stopped looking and have run out of unemployement benefits, (2) The seriously underemployed who have had hours and salaries cut, and most significantly, the self-employed and small business owners in every industry and service business who are not represented in any official numbers.

There are tens of thousands of independent contractors and freelancers who have little or no work. Writers, artists, builders, architects, actors, dancers, producers, programmers, musicians, fundraisers, event planners, etc, etc, etc.

If all these numbers were totaled I would not be surprised to see 25%+ unemployment and 30% underemployment in many areas of the U.S.

Recent surveys of corporate managers have not shown them to be planning new hires except for critical jobs.

Retailers (those still around) and restaurants are hanging on to their survival by a thread. Drive through any suburban area and count the commercial property signs. Each one represents a business and personal financial failure.

Real Estate, which supports a huge infrastructure, is in a depression. Foreclosures continue to rise in nearly every area, with banks holding back on flooding even more into the market.

And if things don't improve in the next few months, which I doubt they will, we'll be looking at a big double dip on the S&P.

IMHO, the Dow at 10,000 is a joke. 8500 is a more appropriate number. But hope, as always, springs eternal.

 

And a boatload of small businesses whose Accounts Receivable is stretching to many months long with little hope of payment, cannot get credit or their financial lines are being cut/closed, and doing pro bono or at-cost work just to keep their few employees busy, owners emptying their IRAs to fund current operating expenses.

 

NYC a "ghost town"? Where?

MSG is packed for Rangers games. Yankee stadium is packed (with the exception of the most expensive seats). Restaurants and bars are crowded.

Seriously, where is it a ghost town?

 

Most of the people on this board spend 12 hours per day on their computers. Of course they dont know anyone who is unemployed. They spend all their time watching the screen, so they wouldnt really have a clue.

Also its mainly the lower income people that are out of work, so as upper income people we dont see them as much. I bet if you lived in a trailer park or housing project that 75% of the people you know would be unemployed.

If you live in a major city, go down to the rapidly growing tent cities in your area and look at the people there. You can tell just by looking that these were the people that were low income before the recession.

 

I've lived in Chicago most of my life. I don't know of any tent cities within or around the city.

... You're not talking of Mexico City, are you?

BTW, I and my four brothers work, and my parents are still retired.

 

Actually NYC is packed with European tourists. They come here to take advantage of serious weaken US currency. It is kind of annoying seeing them clog up everywhere in Manhattan.

 

And all those tourists are spending money in shops, restaurants, arenas, shows, bars, transportation, lodging, etc (which all have to employee people to work there).

I know other areas are hurting and I feel bad for them, but I don't know why some ET'ers who don't live in/around NYC just won't accept the fact that NYC has been back to business as usual since Spring.

 

I live in Chicago. I have many friends in the construction/building trades. Most are union and have been for most of their lives. There are now more men (and women too) "sitting on the bench" than ever before with "no paper on the street" which basically means no project drawings to even bid.

That usually means that once the projects drawings are sent out, the companies bid them, permits are applied for, and then if all goes well, the job begins to stage. This whole process can take from many months to over a year (and that's if the owner(s) can secure financing for their projects.)

In a nutshell its a very bleak outlook ifor that industry here. Many have moved on to do other jobs they are qualified for and some are going back to shcool at their own expense.

 

Just a side note but there is a place near here where people sleep along the side of a Freeway.. some guy was sleeping there and a car lost it on an offramp and landed on the guy...

 

Really???

New York City’s Unemployment Rate Exceeds 10%
By PATRICK MCGEEHAN

New York City’s unemployment rate jumped to 10.3 percent in August as the number of residents unable to find work rose to a record of 415,800, state officials said on Thursday.

The city’s unemployment rate, up from 9.5 percent in July, is higher than the national rate of 9.7 percent and much higher than the 8 percent reported for the rest of the state, the state Labor Department’s figures show. Gov. David A. Paterson and other officials said that the new data emphasized how the financial crisis had devastated the financial services industry that was the main engine of the city’s growth in the last boom.

Mr. Paterson said the recession might be over for the rest of the nation, as Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, has suggested, but New York was still caught in its throes.

“What he’s saying about the national recession doesn’t apply to us,” Mr. Paterson said at a news conference at the Borough of Manhattan Community college in Lower Manhattan.

New York is going to face “tough sledding” for another year or more, he said.

The city’s unemployment rate was the highest since May 1993, the labor department said. The state’s unemployment rate rose to 9 percent in August, from 8.6 percent in July, remaining below the national rate. But the number of unemployed people in the state still rose to a record of 874,300, the figures show.