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Federal Govt. Closed Tuesday
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The District of Columbia's May unemployment rate was 10.7 percent, the D.C. Department of Employment Services announced today. That figure is up 0.8 percent from the April rate, and 4.1 percent higher than the same month in 2008. This is the first time D.C.'s unemployment rate has gone above the 10 percent mark since the recession began. It was holding at 9.9 percent or below for the last couple of months. Nationally, things also look bleak: the U.S. unemployment rate for May was 9.4 percent, up 0.5 percent from April, and 3.9 percent higher than in May 2008. The news comes paired with Labor Department data that shows that for the first time in months, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits from the government actually fell compared to the previous week. There is at least some indication that the drop in benefits rolls may be because more unemployed people are exhausting their benefits.
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DCist link in AOL News:
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/02/09/washington-shuts-down-as-another-snowstor
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10.7%? I would venture to say it is more like 30-40%! At least. It seems to me that none of these youngish looking thugs have no where to go in the morning. Walking around in their casual clothes, heading nowhere in particular, menacing others with their swearing and spitting and littering.
Stop the welfare payments and this city would go under with unrest and violence, fast.
So if the homicide rate increases 10.7 percent, won't this problem take care of itself? I mean, assuming that the guys doing the shooting aren't legally employed elsewhere as sommaliers, podiatrists, and colon hydrotherapy clinicians.
10.7%? I would venture to say it is more like 30-40%! At least. It seems to me that none of these youngish looking thugs have no where to go in the morning. Walking around in their casual clothes, heading nowhere in particular, menacing others with their swearing and spitting and littering.
Stop the welfare payments and this city would go under with unrest and violence, fast.
Get off his lawn you damn kids!
Nerd alert reply - unemployment is only the fraction of people looking for jobs who can't find any. So thugs/profanity users/low pants wearers probably wouldn't be included.
I realize the low-pants wearers are not included in the figure, but they should be. It's a way for the federal and state governments to hide the true facts about our economy. I guess this is what happens when you gut a nation's manufacturing base.
And another thing. There are too many states these days. Please eliminate three.
PS: I am *not* a crackpot!
I vote for eliminating Florida, Louisiana and Texas... :)
My 2nd choice(s)? Make Maryland and Virginia part of the DC Federal enclave. I'd still dump Florida.
I'm not a crackpot either, but I am a bit of a potpot.
Make the Dakotas one state, dump Nevada and Mississippi. Personally I'm willing to say goodbye to West Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Idaho and southern California (but would like to keep San Diego). Utah can stay but only because of the national parks.
I'm a tasty Sichuan hot-pot simmering in a crockpot, and even *I* am having a hard time finding gainful employ.
So discouraging.
I actually cannot stop laughing thinking about Kevinus being "menaced" by the wanton "spitting, littering, and swearing" he encounters on a daily basis.
Also, the whole point of a post about high unemployment is to show that lots of people in DC do not have jobs and thus actually don't have anywhere to be in the morning because of the recession. I imagine people without jobs don't just walk around like morons in suits hoping that a job is just going to jump out at them and demand to be done, so I would guess this explains the casual clothes.
It's also patently absurd to look at people who are moving from point a to point b and reach conclusions about where they're going. That's impossible because that would be mind reading.
I would have to agree that randomly halting all government benefits during a period where 1 in 10 District residents is without a job would cause considerable unrest, mostly because doing that would make no damn sense.
“The news comes paired with Labor Department data that shows that for the first time in months, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits from the government actually fell compared to the previous week.”
As for new unemployment claims, this is the second derivative of employment. The US government does not publish as many statistics on people taking up new jobs. There are some stats on the number of people for whom their eligibility expires and don't file renewals. These numbers need to be also taken into account.