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High-tech company expands downtown
Folgers coffee perks up Smucker earnings
Region's stocking full of ideas for those on the prowl for holiday gifts
Ohio sues credit-rating companies
Study tracks newspaper, online readership
Michelin chief says revenue won't increase
Most Read Stories
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
NFL star Chris Spielman's wife loses cancer battle
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Poor machine maintenance blamed for fire at Akron business
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Man allegedly paid teens to spit in his face
College student mistaken for deer, shot to death
Indians add 7 players to 40-man roster
Body with gunshot wounds found in Canton Township creek
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
The proposed new LeBron mural doesn't do it for me
Akron Zips:
Two blowouts, one night
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Hey, somebody's gotta stick up for the Browns
Kent State Sports:
Singletary update
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs at Indiana Pacers – Here’s to LBJ and Free Throws
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Bowling season starts today
All Da King's Men:
Headed For Disaster
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Muslim McCarthyism & Death Prayers
Akron Law Café:
Federal Judge Declares DOMA Unconstitutional
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Norma asks if Barkitecture is still at Stan Hywet.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Colloquium at University of Akron
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Law provides 14 weeks of additional benefits
By Christopher S. Rugaber
Associated Press
Published on Saturday, Nov 07, 2009
WASHINGTON: The national unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 — and is likely to go higher.
Nearly 16 million people can't find jobs even as the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended. Many economists worry that persistently high unemployment could undermine the recovery by restraining consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy.
The Labor Department said Friday that the nation's jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983, from 9.8 percent in September. The economy shed a net 190,000 jobs in October, less than the downwardly revised 219,000 lost in September, but more than economists expected.
The jump in the jobless rate reflects a sharp increase in the tally of unemployed Americans, which rose to 15.7 million from 15.1 million. The net loss of jobs occurred across most industries, from manufacturing and construction to retail
and financial. That tally is based on a separate survey of businesses.
Economists say the national unemployment rate could climb as high as 10.5 percent next year because employers remain reluctant to hire.
Analyst Ken Mayland, head of ClearView Economics in Pepper Pike, said in a note to clients that the latest national unemployment figures show ''on balance, we are not getting the kind of indications that the labor markets situation is fundamentally improving. The most positive sign was a nearly 34,000 rise of temporary help. But the total workweek did not rise, a precursor to job increases.''
Mayland said unemployment is always at its highest at the end of recessions and even early into recoveries. ''Yet recessions always end!'' he wrote.
The higher minimum wage enacted this year is probably the reason that the largest increase in unemployment was with teenagers, who saw a 1.7 percentage point increase, to 27.6, Mayland wrote. The federal minimum wage was raised this summer by 11 percent, from $6.55 an hour to $7.25.
The jobless rate for the least skilled people, those with less than a high school diploma, increased 0.5 percentage point in October to 15.5 percent, Mayland said. The unemployment rate for people with a bachelor's degree or higher fell 0.2 percentage point in October, to 4.7 percent.
Mayland said employers might be reluctant to hire because they are not yet confident that there will be a durable recovery. He also said the federal government ''is creating some strong headwinds against hiring, in the form of the prospects for much higher taxes and costs for having people on payrolls.''
As a result, employers will try to get more productivity out of their existing labor forces, he wrote.
And many companies already are: Productivity, the amount of output per hour worked, jumped 9.5 percent in the third quarter, the Labor Department said Thursday.
That's the sharpest increase in six years and followed a 6.9 percent rise in the second quarter. The increases enable companies to produce more without hiring extra people.
It's not all bad news, Mayland indicated.
Consumer spending among the 90 percent of people who remain employed should increase as their confidence improves for a number of reasons. That includes being among the job survivors, seeing stock prices rise and having a belief that federal economic policies will work, he said. Spending growth precedes job and income growth, he said.
''We are still on a track to start recording net new job creation early in 2010,'' Mayland wrote.
Friday's report is the first since the government said last week that the economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the strongest signal yet that the economy is rebounding. But that isn't fast enough to spur rapid hiring.
October was the 22nd consecutive month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating 70 years.
Ohio had an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent in September, compared to 10.8 percent in August and 6.8 percent in September 2008. Nonfarm wage and salary employment was 5,097,200 in September, down 5,900 from 5,103,100 in August.
Summit County's unemployment was 9.6 percent in September. Akron's rate was 10.1 percent, while Cuyahoga Falls had an 8.9 percent rate.
Obama signs bill
Congress sought to address the impact of long-term unemployment this week by approving legislation extending jobless benefits for the fourth time since the recession began. President Barack Obama signed the $24 billion economic stimulus bill into law Friday, giving additional jobless benefits to those idled by the business slump and tax incentives to prospective homebuyers.
The White House said the law, which includes tax cuts for struggling businesses, builds on provisions in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted last February to avert an economic meltdown.
The law provides another 14 weeks of benefits to all out-of-work people who have exhausted their benefits or will do so by the end of the year, estimated at nearly 2 million. Those in states where the jobless rate is 8.5 percent or above get an additional six weeks.
The tax credits, added by the Senate, center on extending the popular $8,000 credit for first-time homebuyers that was included in the stimulus package. The credit, which was to expire at the end of this month, will be available through next June as long as the buyer signs a binding contract by the end of April.
The program is expanded to include a $6,500 credit for homeowners who buy a new place after living in their current residence for at least five years.
Beacon Journal business writer Jim Mackinnon and Associated Press reporters Jim Kuhnhenn and Jim Abrams contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON: The national unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 — and is likely to go higher.
Nearly 16 million people can't find jobs even as the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended. Many economists worry that persistently high unemployment could undermine the recovery by restraining consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy.
The Labor Department said Friday that the nation's jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983, from 9.8 percent in September. The economy shed a net 190,000 jobs in October, less than the downwardly revised 219,000 lost in September, but more than economists expected.
The jump in the jobless rate reflects a sharp increase in the tally of unemployed Americans, which rose to 15.7 million from 15.1 million. The net loss of jobs occurred across most industries, from manufacturing and construction to retail
and financial. That tally is based on a separate survey of businesses.
Economists say the national unemployment rate could climb as high as 10.5 percent next year because employers remain reluctant to hire.
Analyst Ken Mayland, head of ClearView Economics in Pepper Pike, said in a note to clients that the latest national unemployment figures show ''on balance, we are not getting the kind of indications that the labor markets situation is fundamentally improving. The most positive sign was a nearly 34,000 rise of temporary help. But the total workweek did not rise, a precursor to job increases.''
Mayland said unemployment is always at its highest at the end of recessions and even early into recoveries. ''Yet recessions always end!'' he wrote.
The higher minimum wage enacted this year is probably the reason that the largest increase in unemployment was with teenagers, who saw a 1.7 percentage point increase, to 27.6, Mayland wrote. The federal minimum wage was raised this summer by 11 percent, from $6.55 an hour to $7.25.
The jobless rate for the least skilled people, those with less than a high school diploma, increased 0.5 percentage point in October to 15.5 percent, Mayland said. The unemployment rate for people with a bachelor's degree or higher fell 0.2 percentage point in October, to 4.7 percent.
Mayland said employers might be reluctant to hire because they are not yet confident that there will be a durable recovery. He also said the federal government ''is creating some strong headwinds against hiring, in the form of the prospects for much higher taxes and costs for having people on payrolls.''
As a result, employers will try to get more productivity out of their existing labor forces, he wrote.
And many companies already are: Productivity, the amount of output per hour worked, jumped 9.5 percent in the third quarter, the Labor Department said Thursday.
That's the sharpest increase in six years and followed a 6.9 percent rise in the second quarter. The increases enable companies to produce more without hiring extra people.
It's not all bad news, Mayland indicated.
Consumer spending among the 90 percent of people who remain employed should increase as their confidence improves for a number of reasons. That includes being among the job survivors, seeing stock prices rise and having a belief that federal economic policies will work, he said. Spending growth precedes job and income growth, he said.
''We are still on a track to start recording net new job creation early in 2010,'' Mayland wrote.
Friday's report is the first since the government said last week that the economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the strongest signal yet that the economy is rebounding. But that isn't fast enough to spur rapid hiring.
October was the 22nd consecutive month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating 70 years.
Ohio had an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent in September, compared to 10.8 percent in August and 6.8 percent in September 2008. Nonfarm wage and salary employment was 5,097,200 in September, down 5,900 from 5,103,100 in August.
Summit County's unemployment was 9.6 percent in September. Akron's rate was 10.1 percent, while Cuyahoga Falls had an 8.9 percent rate.
Obama signs bill
Congress sought to address the impact of long-term unemployment this week by approving legislation extending jobless benefits for the fourth time since the recession began. President Barack Obama signed the $24 billion economic stimulus bill into law Friday, giving additional jobless benefits to those idled by the business slump and tax incentives to prospective homebuyers.
The White House said the law, which includes tax cuts for struggling businesses, builds on provisions in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted last February to avert an economic meltdown.
The law provides another 14 weeks of benefits to all out-of-work people who have exhausted their benefits or will do so by the end of the year, estimated at nearly 2 million. Those in states where the jobless rate is 8.5 percent or above get an additional six weeks.
The tax credits, added by the Senate, center on extending the popular $8,000 credit for first-time homebuyers that was included in the stimulus package. The credit, which was to expire at the end of this month, will be available through next June as long as the buyer signs a binding contract by the end of April.
The program is expanded to include a $6,500 credit for homeowners who buy a new place after living in their current residence for at least five years.
Beacon Journal business writer Jim Mackinnon and Associated Press reporters Jim Kuhnhenn and Jim Abrams contributed to this report.
Comments
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Anti-Politically Correct & Anti-GOP, OH
Posted 06:05 AM, 11/07/2009
Reagan Administration and Bush Administration....not much difference.
Two years after Reagan was in office there was an all time high and 8 years of Bush being in office is certainly going to leave a scar.
