U.S. BLS Unemployment numbers trashed

**ALS** · December 4th, 2009, 04:39 PM

You've heard the term there are Lies, damned lies, and statistics. When it comes to cooking the employment numbers our Government has gotten really good at it.

As we prepare for the monthly fiction that is the jobs report, [Nov 6, 2009: Official Unemployment Rate Hits 10.2%; Reality is Far Higher], Zerohedge posts a damning piece on the "good news" that has been the weekly unemployment claims figure. There has been some celebration of late on financial entertainment TV that we've crossed the rubicon below 500K weekly jobless claims (in and of itself a horrific figure in any normal economic time). But the truth... oh the truth.... it hurts.

There are these nasty little details of where the unemployed are being stuffed ... too inconvenient to talk about on mainstream news sources, because it might put you in a dour mood. You see, as the weekly claims figure has dropped from 462,000 Americans last week to 457,000 this week (green shoots, a 5000 person drop!) the (hidden in dark corners where only mushrooms grow) Emergency Unemployment Compensation exploded up by 265,000 Americans. Yes you heard me, a quarter million people... in a week. Shhhh... not so loud.

What the heck is EUC you say? CNBC has never mentioned it? Shocker.

The EUC program was created on June 30, 2008, by the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-252). It made up to 13 additional weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits available to unemployed individuals nationwide who had already collected all regular state benefits for which they were eligible and who met other eligibility requirements.

On November 21, 2008, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-449) expanded EUC to 20 weeks nationwide and created a second tier of 13 more weeks of EUC for individuals in States with high unemployment rates.

On February 17, 2009, the President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which extends the period of time during which claims for EUC can be filed and benefits paid.

So if you are not following what is happening... people are falling off the traditional claims as they have exhausted "traditional" lengths of stay, and our EUC (all our extensions combined) are exploding higher. I assume some of these people are those who lost benefits, but are coming back into the system... and others are those who just ran out of traditional benefits and morphing into the new list seamlessly. Hence if you only focus on the traditional measurement tools, you smile as Kool Aid runs over your lips. If you deal in reality... you turn your smile upside down.

Full article with charts
Did-weekly-jobless-claims-really-fall-below-500k

**FormerUser123** · December 4th, 2009, 04:48 PM

Yep...anyone who has been unemployed in the past year probably knows all about EUC. I ended up on EUC for a few weeks before I finally found a job.

The market place was hell last year, I can't imagine what people are going through this year...

**D10** · December 4th, 2009, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by BTA88

The market place was hell last year, I can't imagine what people are going through this year...

Trust me........you don't wanna know. It is even worse then last years.

**Barry 'Wild Bill' Hershey** · December 5th, 2009, 02:53 PM

According to a source who rubs elbows with big banking interests, unemployment is actually closer to 21% ... Wasn't the great depression somewhere around 33% ?

Those who forget (or ignor) the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them ... Bear in mind during the 1980s slump, they kept reporting every month that UC claims were on the decline leading the public to assume people were getting back to work and things were improving, but never mentioned it was because claims were expiring ... Couldn't get into the Malls parking lot in years past - Bigger than normal weekend turn-out this year, but no problem finding a parking spot, and most are walking around lite or empty handed ... anyone else seeing this in their area ?

**mcmcallister** · December 5th, 2009, 06:27 PM

well at least there are parking spots at the mall

**Pector55** · December 5th, 2009, 09:38 PM

Well, inflation rates are bullshit, why not make unemployment numbers bullshit too. Heck, maybe we can make global warming reports bull... nevermind, I'm late to the table with that one.

**mcmcallister** · December 5th, 2009, 09:40 PM

LOL damn 10 characters

**bighornjd** · December 5th, 2009, 10:52 PM

I am probably one example of someone who isn't in those statistics. I started my own part-time side business in August of 08 and lost my full-time job this past July. I applied for and was denied Unemployment benefits. Since then I have tried to up the ante with my business and it has become my full-time 'job'. However the combination of a borderline full/part time workload, growing pains, and a shitty economy are making things tough to the point where my personal 'cut' from the business is minimal or non-existant and i have been running on savings which is getting low. So i don't know if i count as 'unemployed' but with no real income to speak of I'd hardly call it 'self-employed' either. Talk about being between Barack and a hard place...