U.S. Economy: Jobless Rate Rises to Four-Year High

Shobhana Chandra
Bloomberg
Saturday, Aug 2, 2008

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to the highest level in more than four years as employers cut jobs again in July, increasing the threat of a deeper economic slowdown.

Payrolls fell by 51,000, less than forecast, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 5.7 percent, from 5.5 percent the prior month. As recently as April, it was 5 percent. A separate report showed that manufacturing stagnated in July as companies were hit by rising raw-materials costs and slower spending.

“This is further evidence the economy is in a recession, probably a shallow recession,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, referring to rising joblessness. “It will be a major drag on consumer spending.”

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The last time unemployment climbed so much in three months was at the end of the last U.S. recession in 2001. Payroll cuts combined with decreasing property values, stricter lending rules and near-record energy prices to send consumer confidence levels close to the weakest in 16 years in July.

Cutbacks at UAL Corp. and Starbucks Corp. signal firings are spreading beyond builders and manufacturers as raw-materials costs soar. General Motors Corp., which today announced a second-quarter loss of $15.5 billion, may eliminate about 5,000 U.S. jobs by year-end, people familiar with the plan said this week.

Payroll declines spanned transportation, retailing, manufacturing and temporary services industries, the Labor figures showed.

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3 Responses to “U.S. Economy: Jobless Rate Rises to Four-Year High”

1. Todd Says:
   August 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 am

   There are two things the American people must do to solve this mess.

   First, they must educate themselves about the real root cause of the current economic crisis by watching documentaties such as “The Money Masters” — http://www.themoneymasters.com — and “Money As Debt” — http://www.moneyasdebt.net — and by reading books such as Ellen Brown’s “Web of Debt” — http://www.webofdebt.com — and Stephen Zarlenga’s “The Lost Science of Money”: http://www.monetary.org/lostscienceofmoney.html

   Second, they must demand, not request, DEMAND that their Congressmen replace the current debt-based fiat money system with a debt-free fiat money system.

   The ideal system is one in which it is mandated by law that the debt-free expansion rate of the national money supply be such that (1) the per capita supply of money never falls (thus guarding against depression-inducing contractions, such as the 1/3 contraction that caused the Great Depression), (2) the money supply never increases by more than nine percent in any given year (thus guarding against runaway hyperinflation), and (3) the rate of new money issuance is moderately adjusted inversely with the rise or fall of the general price level.

   The third requirement is what would keep prices stable, while the first two are fail-safe measures to ensure that no adjustment to the money supply expansion rate is ever so extreme in either direction as to cause economic chaos. No Yugoslavian-style hyperinflation (or anything close to it), and no 1930s-style deflation (or anything close to it).

   The solution is EASY folks. But if it’s ever going to happen, the American people must be made to realize that it’s their ridiculous obsession with mindless distractions (TV especially) that is allowing a tiny group of super-rich, over-privileged, string-pulling elites to financially RAPE them with such embarrassing ease.

   So turn the TV off, educate yourselves and others, then join forces and raise some hell!

2. trueblue Says:
   August 2nd, 2008 at 11:43 am

   “So turn the TV off, educate yourselves and others, then join forces and raise some hell!”

   That’s the best advice you could give people, Todd! Stop thinking that ANY TV is educating you! It’s ALL propaganda! Will

3. WXYZ Says:
   August 2nd, 2008 at 3:03 pm

   Definitely the story of the week was the astounding revelation of
   of senior Nasa official Clark McClelland.

   McClelland supported astronaut Ed Mitchell’s claim that the military was interacting with alien races.

   McClelland revealed that he saw an 8 to 9 alien in the shuttle docking bay on his moniter during a classified shuttle mission.

   He also witnessed a UFO locked in a stationary orbit with the shuttle.

   You can find the full story under the links button at;

   http:///hismailroom.com