Alternate title: Liberal Stimulus Bill Puts 2 million Additional People on Emergency Unemployment

The state by state unemployment figures came out yesterday and it is not a very pretty sight. There is no recovery in progress, not for most of America, because the job losses keepl piling up (albeit at a slower rate):

Unemployment rose in 23 states last month as the economy struggled to create jobs in the early stages of the recovery.

While layoffs have slowed, companies remain reluctant to hire. Forty-three states reported job losses in September, while only seven gained jobs, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Some of the states that lost jobs still saw their unemployment rates decline, as discouraged workers gave up looking for work. People who are out of work but no longer looking for jobs aren’t counted as officially unemployed.

Emphasis mine. That “some” means a drop in unemployment rate is not necessarily an increase in jobs. President Obama cannot be claiming to have “saved or created” a job when, in fact, the person has given up. State by state underemployment (U6) is not reported on a monthly basis, only quarterly. So we will not see the full picture of the employment pain and suffering until the third quarter data comes out (here is the 2nd quarter data from August 10th)

A while back I started tracking the states with unemployment over 10% to measure if there was any recovery at hand, and to show how key states are really suffering. As expected it is grim out there (click to enlarge).

September did not bring any good news of course, but the depth of the challenge here is hidden in the details. Note once again when magical liberal stimulus bill passed. At that point there were only 7 states with unemployment over 10%. All but one (Michigan) were under 11%, Michigan was still under 12%.

Since then the faux liberal stimulus bill did nothing to ‘stimulate’ the economy – which we learned this month was ‘as planned’. 95% of the job stimulus money is still stuck in the federal bureaucracy, doing nothing productive. Consequently, the unemployment kept right on rising through the summer and now into the fall. 15 states now have unemployment over 10%.

Here are some bleak numbers from the Dept of Labor data:

• Michigan has completed 4 straight months over 15%
• California has completed 7 months over 11%, the last 3 months hovering around 12%.
• Florida just broke the 11% mark in September
• Nevada crept to 13.3%, and has been above 12.5% for three months
• Rhode Island has been above 12% for 5 months, and just broke through the 13% mark

And these are the unemployment numbers. Just imagine the underemployment figures.

We don’t have to imagine what is happening with those clinging to the last life-line of unemployment benefits. The weekly unemployment report came out today and it shows a steadily rising number of people clinging to the last edge of the federal safety net, the EUC benefits (click to enlarge).

EUC is where people go when they have been out of work so long they run through the normal unemployment assistance. After this there is no help. The fact is this last sanctuary before giving up is getting damn crowded, and that is a sign there are no significant numbers of jobs being “created or saved”.

In fact, since the liberals’ faux stimulus bill was passed in late February, this group of desperate Americans has grown by 133% – it has more than doubled! President Obama and his groupie news media never tell America that instead of ‘saving or creating’ 2 million jobs, the liberals’ naive reliance on federal work programs has put nearly 2 million people on to EUC (1,976,183 – per the Department of Labor’s numbers).

That is what Obamanomics has reaped. Not millions of once unemployed people working and making a living, but actually nearly 3.4 million people now clinging to the last life lined of unemployment assistance, 15 million unemployed and only God knows how many underemployed or who have given up and are not even counted anymore.

Lots of change, no hope.

Tags: EUC Benefits, Obamanomics, State Unemployment, Under Employment