Home  News Local News National unemployment continues to rise
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National unemployment continues to rise |
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Written by Dr. Garth A. Rose
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Sunday, 10 August 2008 |
There seems to be no end to depressing national economic news. As August dawned there were reports from the U.S. Department of Labor that national unemployment continued to rise, from 5.5 percent in June to 5.7 percent in July. The .2 percent increase translates to an additional 51,000 people joining the list of the unemployed. Since January 463,000 Americans have lost their jobs.
Ironically, while the depressing unemployment data was being announced, one of the nation’s largest oil companies Exxon-Mobile was announcing whopping quarterly profits of over $11 billion. On the other hand General Motors, a legend in the American auto industry was reporting a massive quarterly loss of over $15 billion.
Contributing to the increase in unemployment in July was a large percentage of young high school and college graduates who entered the job market looking for summer jobs, with several of them unable to find work. The unemployment rate for teenagers rose to 20.3 percent in July, the highest in 16 years. A quick survey by the National Weekly of 18 Broward and Palm Beach high school graduates revealed that only 6 or 33 percent have received jobs since schools closed in June, and of 9 College graduates from Broward Community College and Florida Atlantic University only 5 or 55 percent got jobs. The unemployment rate for Florida will be announced later this month.
The areas with the greatest job losses were manufacturing, construction, retail, while temporary help firms, usually a strong alternative job source, also saw a sharp fall in jobs. Analysts are expecting that another half a million jobs will be lost over the remainder of the year, with the national unemployment rate rising to 6.5 percent by next June.
The continuous rise in unemployment is certain to impact further on the national economy, as with incomes shrinking consumers will have less to spend in the retail market, which in turn would result in more job loss. With the stimulus checks that have been distributed to tax payers since May seeming to have had relatively little effect on the economy, Democrats in Congress, including Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama are pushing for a second stimulus package to boost the economy, and restore jobs. Obama is pushing for energy compensation checks of $1,000 each to be sent out to the Americans before the elections. Although the response of the White house to the demand for another round of stimulus checks has not been determined, according to White House press secretary Dana Perino, the president was working to improve the job outlook for the economy.
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