The real unemployment rate is higher

The unemployment rate measures people who are not working but who are actively looking for jobs. The latter requirement is important.

If you are out of work and look for a long time but get frustrated and stop looking, then you are not considered part of the labor force, and thus not part of the officially unemployed.

But you may be happy to work, if given the chance.

Thus, it's interesting to take a look at a broader measure of the unemployed, a measure that includes the officially unemployed (jobless seeking work), part time workers (who'd like to work full time) and the underemployed (jobless but not actively seeking work).

The broader measure of the unemployed and underemployed gives us a rate of 17.5% (whereas the official unemployment rate is 10.2%).

This means that, in reality, the jobless picture is worse than we thought. Almost 16 million people are without work and, since 2007, 7 million people have lost their jobs.

Looking at these numbers, it's clear that many people are hungry to work. When the economy picks up again, there will be an incredible level of enthusiasm for job growth.

Unemployment report, part 10

The unemployment rate went up again, in October, to 10.2%, the highest rate in 26 years. The unemployment rate measures the percentage of people who don't have work but are actively seeking jobs.

In the macroeconomy, the problem is that economists do not foresee a decline in the unemployment rate until well into 2010.

Here are the unemployment rates, by month, for 2009. It's quite a trend:
October 10.2%
September 9.8%
August 9.7%
July 9.4%
June 9.5%
May 9.4%
April 8.9%
March 8.5%
February 8.1%
January 7.6%

Food is Heaven

I find the controversy over food production/consumption in China fascinating.

The video "China Rising: Food is Heaven" makes clear several contemporary conflicts:

• The goal of the communist political leaders to stay in power
• The necessity of creating millions of jobs for a growing population
• The imperative of reducing environmental degradation, which is destroying the lives of many peasants
• The requirement of feeding a population over 1.3 billion

While China continues to be the exporter for the rest of the world, factories popping up daily across the countryside are choking local peasants, making their lives untenable.

How should the country proceed? In the developed world, environmental awareness corresponded with income growth. After we secured a reasonable existence, we were able to turn our attention to environmental quality.

China, on the other hand, relies on polluting industries for job creation. Over the long, term, however, for economic vitality to exist, economic growth and environmental quality must become complements.

Harry Potter takes over the world

Have you seen this? Universal Studios in Orlando is building a Harry Potter theme park, with Hogwarts castle, Hogsmeade and a Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster.

After seven books, movies and the conquering of the children book industry, where else will Harry Potter spread?

Building an energy network

In a recent article, Bob Herbert highlights a speech by the president concerning energy and jobs.

What I found most interesting about the speech is an analogy the president made between highways and our energy grid.

Imagine, as he said, in the 1920s in the U.S., the problems of motor transportation, with a "tangled maze of poorly maintained back roads." With this system, it was impossible to be efficient. The interstate system built in the 1950s changed that.

As the president made clear, our patchwork energy grid, which is a number of regional grids, without country-wide connections and capabilities, needs upgrading. That's where a public $3.4 billion investment comes in. The public investment is intended to create a national "smart" grid, where energy suppliers--many of them from solar and wind--in any part of the country can provide power in the national system.

This is a great idea. After this national system is built, energy security--providing for our own energy needs--will be within reach.

No child left behind creating...lower standards?

The contoversial No Child Left Behind educational policy, passed in 2002, is supposed to raise academic standards in primary education (tests are given in 4th and 8th grades in math and reading).

What does a new study show? In many states, the opposite is occurring. In order to comply with federal regulations that 100% of students must achieve state level competency by 2014, many states, including Illinois, have lowered standards in at least one of the two areas, math or reading.

The reason? If test standards are lower, students have a higher probability of passing, thus meeting the requirement of No Child Left Behind.

With the economic necessity of quality education as important now as ever, our national approach of standardized testing is not moving our country forward.

Stimulus plan and job creation

Just how many jobs have resulted from the federal stimulus plan? The White House says 650,000.

That seems like a lot, unless we consider that the projection is 3.5 million jobs created by the plan over the next two years.

Whether or not the plan does what it's supposed to do, we'd be much worse off without it.

Have a great weekend!