Unemployment stats are only as accurate as the numbers show the folks who are currently on Unemployment Compensation. They can't take into account the folks whos benifits have run out and are still not working.

I believe 9.7% is probably a low end estimate mainly because there has been no news on jobs saved or created.


Unemployment Rises to 9.7 Percent; 216,000 Jobs Lost in August

The unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since June 1983, as employers eliminated a net total of 216,000 jobs.(AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (Paul Sancya - AP)

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 4, 2009; 12:01 PM

The job market continued its long, steep decline in August, with the jobless rate soaring to 9.7 percent and employers continuing to shed jobs, albeit at a slower rate than expected.

This Story
Unemployment Rises to 9.7 Percent; 216,000 Jobs Lost in August
Stimulus Credited for Lifting Economy, But Worries About Unemployment Persist
Stimulus Status
Analysts generally believe that economic output began rising by late summer. But new Labor Department data released Friday morning shows that that improvement isn't yet flowing through to the job market, as employers remain highly reluctant to add staff.

The rise in the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent in August, from 9.4 percent in July, resumed a steep upward path that has been only rarely interrupted since the recession began in December 2007. Employers shed 216,000 net jobs, significantly better than the revised 276,000 jobs lost in July and less than the 230,000 decline that forecasters expected.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs pointed to the unemployment trend line as positive. "We are continuing to see a slowing of the pace of job loss," he said.

"We're losing more than we're creating, but we're heading in the right direction," Gibbs said. The country, he said, has "pulled back from the precipice" of a second Depression."

Still, Gibbs said, President Obama "won't be satisfied until we're creating jobs."

The tally now stands at 6.9 million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. A broader measure of joblessness rose even more sharply than the headline unemployment rate. An expanded unemployment rate that includes people who have given up looking for a job out of frustration and who are working part time but want a full-time job rose to 16.8 percent, from 16.3 percent.

The rate of job losses has been declining, if haltingly, since winter. The August numbers, bad as they are, do offer hope that job losses will continue tapering off. Economists generally consider the job loss numbers to be a more reliable month-to-month barometer of the economy than the unemployment rate, and that measure indicated the slowest rate of job loss since August 2008.

The report also said that the average workweek was unchanged at 33.1 hours. Employers have cut back on hours in the current downturn, in addition to cutting jobs entirely, and are expected to have existing employees work longer hours before bringing new people onto their staffs. The hours-worked number confirms that employers have stopped cutting back hours but gives no evidence they are starting to expand hours yet.

Among the most positive signs in the report, average earnings for non-managerial workers rose 0.3 percent in August, the Labor Department said.

The job losses, though lower than in recent months, remained broad-based. The construction industry cut 65,000 jobs, in line with the recent trend. Manufacturing companies cut 63,000 jobs. The health-care sector, as it has throughout the recession, added jobs.

But thats impossible. VP Biden just said that because of the stimulas working as well if not better than expected the administration saved or created 600,000 jobs in the last 200 days.

15 MILLION OUT OF WORK

By a broader measure that includes forced part-timers and people who'd like to work but aren't looking, the national unemployment rate reached 16.8 percent -- up a staggering 6 percent from this time last year.

The pace of job cuts has steadily slowed since the beginning of the year, when monthly losses exceeded 700,000 in January.

The total number of unemployed is 14.9 million, roughly double the number at the start of the recession in December 2007.

The number of long-term unemployed, those out of work 27 weeks or longer, edged up only slightly in August, from 4.96 million to 4.98 million. At the end of the year, nearly 1.5 million of those people will exhaust their extended unemployment insurance unless the government takes action to further extend their benefits.


And the picture isn't so great for people who are working, either. A report released this morning by the Economic Policy Institute concludes that many workers who have not lost their jobs during the recession have nevertheless taken a hit as a result of sluggish wage growth, reduced hours and involuntary furloughs. Private sector wages have grown at a rate of 1.3 percent over the last six months, less than half as fast as wage growth during 2007 and the first six months of 2008.

"It's an implosion of wage growth far beyond what you would expect" in an ordinary recession, said EPI's Larry Mishel, co-author of the report, in a conference call with reporters. Average wages rose 6 cents in August, according to the Department of Labor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/04/unemployment-hits-97-as-e_n_277218.html

Your government at work!

It has more to do with the lobbyists and Wall Street and white-collar crime.

Saved or created.. I love that stuff..

I suppose every single person that is still working, has been saved by Obama.

Good stuff, indeed..

the true unemployment rate is around 16 1/2 percent...according to the Labor Department...how's that hope and change workin' for ya'...

Still unemployed, yep it's reeeally workin fer me

Hate to bring it up again but, now would be the time to bump the Illegals out of jobs Americans and Legal Immigrants could do.

Forget deporting them. Let them find their own way back home.

And apparently, the only way the Administration will listen is to get loud and angry.

According to some news, they actually want to grant them amnesty asap.

here read:
http://www.examiner.com/x-17495-San-Diego-Immigration-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d26-Dont-look-now-Immigration-Reform-is-coming-in-the-back-door

NO. You are wrong. White collar crime? Bernie Madolf stole money from me so I got fired. NOT!

Obama stated that if the stimulus passed unemployment would not go above 8%. Did he lie or was he just wrong? End result is the same. I think he lied.

If you consider the fascist techniques employed by Bernanke, the Treasury, Congress, Bush, and Obama to pilfer that money "white collar crime", I agree.

Yep, deportin doesn't work no way. I once booked an illegal mexican in for DUI, he'd been deported 3 times before, an wouldn't have been deported for a 4th unless I hadn't called up by buddy in Immigration. Poor guy had to do some federal prison time before he got sent home that time.

when ronny the dog regan was pres. he changed how they counted the unemployed . that way it looked liked he hard put the country back to work . he decided that only the people who were collecting unemployment should count . so this 9.7 per cent only sounds small . but even that is 6.7 million citazens out of work . with 29,000,000 million illegals here takeing jobs at a lower rate of pay . we need to get rid of all the illegals and those who are helping them . they deported the italic even after they became legal for commiting crimes here . lets do it again . I couldn't be more tried of people who think there is only laws for everyone else .Are you tried of loseing your homes YET !YOUR CHILDRENS FUTURES . HAVEN'T YOU GOT ANY BALLS .