Still Losing the War on Unemployment

Before we get excited about the current employment numbers this quarter, these figures omit several factors that impede a better and more sustainable outlook. While the numbers are markedly better than we've seen in recent months they leave out the demographic of the unemployed and those on the fast track of becoming unemployable. There are other aspects as well....for example, the holiday seasonal employment surge, this is an election year, and the ratio between the rise in job numbers vs. those who are still unemployed: 200,000 new jobs vs 5.5 million without employment for more than 27 months. We have a very long way to go and given that our manufacturing/production jobs have been outsourced to China and other Asian countries the outlook is still bleak.