The Weekend Economists Run For The Roses.

[bread_and_roses]

25. The real unemployment rate 13.9% (at least)

I say "at least" because I think it may well be even higher - and is, if I recall rightly, among our Sisters and Brothers who are African American, or Latino/a/Hispanic ....

... and, of course, "Austerity Is 'Suffocating the Economy"

(though it's not spending on "consumer goods" I much want to see - more cheap rags from China, etc. and more blood on our shirts from near-slave workers is NOT a sustainable path to healthy community .....)

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/04-1

Published on Saturday, May 4, 2013 by The Nation
Austerity Is 'Suffocating the Economy'
by John Nichols

The US economy is suffering from a nasty case of austerity.

Only 165,000 new jobs were created in April—far fewer than is needed to address existing unemployment and to create positions for the millions of Americans who are entering the workforce.

More than 11.7 million active job seekers cannot find work. And that figure does not include millions of Americans who have given up on looking for work, or who are severely under-employed. Add them in and the real unemployment’s at 13.9 percent.

Even the jobs that are being created tend to be in sectors of the economy where wages tend to low and benefits often nonexistent. For instance, the latest report notes growth in the “temporary services” sector. But there’s zero job growth in manufacturing.

“This is a classic ‘hold-steady’ report —enough job growth to keep the unemployment rate stable but not much more,” Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, says of the latest news from the US Department of Labor. “In good times, this would be fine, but at a time like this, it represents an ongoing disaster.”

(bold emphasis added)