In this climate, GDP growth can turn positive but companies are reluctant to hire. Full recovery will not resume spontaneously based on household or business demand, and the only source of increased demand to break the cycle is the government. One of the most widespread and mistaken assumptions is that this bleak future is just baked into the cake. Because of the legacy of the financial collapse, and the limits of deficit spending, supposedly, we are just stuck with it. You hear that in testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and it is repeated mindlessly by the media.

In a society where productivity, stock markets and profits go up as a consequence of the marginalization of the population, the future of our youth is murky, at best. Who wants to impart that lesson to kids looking for a start, for some hint of the prospect of an independent life, someday? There is no plan of this government to effectively address the chronic, grinding unemployment that is youth in Obama’s America. When there is no plan invoke “market forces” and ratchet up the foreign wars. Smooth talk for a crude course is well worn by now.

Unemployment surged from 9.8 percent in September to 10.2 percent last month, its highest level since 1983. At the same time, the economy lost 190,000 more jobs. That means employers have eliminated 7.3 million positions since the recession began in December 2007. As dreadful as they are, the headline numbers understate the severity of the problem. They also obscure an even grimmer fact: Unless there is more government support, it will take several years of robust economic growth — by no means a sure thing — to recoup the jobs that have been lost. The unemployment rate includes only jobless people who have looked for work in the past four weeks. [T]he numbers paint this stark picture: At no time in post-World War II America has it been more difficult to find a job, to plan for the future, or — for tens of millions of Americans — to merely get by.

PARIS (AP) -- Despite signs of an economic revival gathering pace around the globe, the millions of people laid off during the worst recession in 70 years are unlikely to see relief any time soon as joblessness is still climbing in many of the world's largest economies. This week the European Union forecast unemployment in the eurozone will rise to 10.7 percent in 2010 from 9.5 percent this year. Unemployment rates in the 30 wealthy countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development range from a low of 3.5 percent in the Netherlands to 18.3 percent in Spain, according to September figures.

"In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982. This includes the officially unemployed, who have looked for work in the last four weeks. It also includes discouraged workers, who have looked in the past year, as well as millions of part-time workers who want to be working full time. The official jobless rate — 10.2 percent in October, up from 9.8 percent in September — remains lower than the early 1980s peak of 10.8 percent."

there is another reason high unemployment may excite investors. Current layoffs are likely, for many workers, to be permanent. A recent report that productivity-work output per worker-was up at a 9.55 annual rate in the Third Quarter, is an indication that those companies that haven't shut down operations are making or doing more with fewer workers. That kind of thing happens in recessions, because as joblessness gets worse, those workers who still have jobs become more docile and are willing to be worked harder by management. Of course, you get more on-the-job injuries, more stress-related illness, etc. along with that kind of speed-up, but over the shorter term, it looks good on the books if you're cranking out more product with a lower payroll.

Americans have a long history of consuming and/or killing their way out of crisis. And it isn’t looking as if that model will be up for reassessment anytime soon. The parameters of what we like to call the “national conversation” are as narrow as ever, and they are not widening under the current leadership. So far at least, even Obama’s ‘Clean Energy Economy’ has failed to deliver enough ‘green jobs’ (or any other color jobs for that matter) to begin the process of meaningful transition. With the season of consuming just around the corner, many Americans – especially those in blue collar jobs like construction, manufacturing and retail service – are staring into the economic abyss. It is hardly surprising in such an environment that a young person with dismal employment prospects and plummeting self esteem would be easily seduced by an ad that promises “more than $49,000 in GI Bill Benefits” as does the US military’s current promo. The same ad promises that young recruits can “connect with military and veteran-friendly schools that offer VA approved education programs,” or “get information” about high-paying degrees like Criminal Justice, IT and Legal Studies.---

One would hope that Reid's actions are based at least somewhat on the urgent need for both unemployment benefits and health insurance, and that forcing conservatives to reveal themselves as obstructionist corporate shills is only a side benefit of calling for a cloture vote. But personally, I don't care why Reid and other congressional leaders decide to grow a pair. I just care that they do it, and soon.

According to official statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States is now 9.8 percent. But those statistics understate the severity of the jobs crisis. The official statistics do not include the 875,000 Americans who have given up looking for work, even though they want jobs. When these "marginally attached" workers and part-time workers are added to the officially unemployed, the result, according to another, broader governement measure of unemployment known as "U-6," is shocking. The United States has an unemployment rate of 17 percent. And even this may understate the depth of the problem. By adding the 3.4 million Americans who want a job but have not looked for one in over a year, businessman, philanthropist and Obama advisor Leo Hindery Jr. infers an actual unemployment rate of 18.8 percent. In other words, nearly one in five Americans is unemployed or underemployed.

On Thursday, the government released a flood of data about the stimulus, showing how 9,000 federal contractors spent their stimulus dollars — including the value of the contract, each project’s status, and how much each of the contractor’s five highest-paid officers were paid.

The economic disaster that has driven millions of working class Americans into unemployment, homelessness and hunger is good news on Wall Street. Flush with wealth from taxpayer bailouts, the banks are posting record profits and the very people whose unbridled greed was behind the world economic meltdown will pocket record bonuses this year. Read about it in their very own newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, if you can afford one.

The Senate must move quickly to extend unemployment benefits, as the ranks of the jobless have begun seeing their checks dry up, according to the two Democratic senators from Massachusetts.

Adding still further to the already towering deficit is a difficult and painful task, but it is the necessary consequence of years of economic mismanagement, and it is an additional step that is necessary to get the country back on the road to recovery.

We all know that the economy is now recovering. The stock market is up by more than 50 percent from its March lows and Alan Greenspan, the former Maestro, is now projecting a 3.0 percent growth rate for the third quarter. Banks are again reporting strong profits and the Wall Street bankers are getting bonuses that are approaching their housing bubble peaks. Everything is bright and sunny again, unless you have to work for a living. The news here is less good. The economy lost more than 260,000 jobs in September, with the unemployment rate reaching 9.8 percent. The 10.3 percent unemployment rate for adult men is the highest rate since the Great Depression. And real wages are headed downward. Even worse, the unemployment rate is virtually certain to keep rising in the months ahead. While job loss in manufacturing has slowed, construction is continuing to shed jobs at a rapid rate. Most of this job loss now stems from the collapse of the bubble in nonresidential construction. The retail sector is laying off workers at a rapid pace as consumers cut back spending in response to the loss of $8 trillion in housing bubble wealth. And state and local governments are now laying off teachers, firefighters, and other workers in response to the huge deficits created by the recession and the collapse of the loss of property tax revenue due to the collapse of the housing bubble.

But the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes. Its political system is locked in paralysis and the two-term rule of former movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a disaster – his approval ratings having sunk to levels that would make George W Bush blush. The crisis is so deep that Professor Kenneth Starr, who has written an acclaimed history of the state, recently declared: "California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America."

For the first time, the average amount of time it takes fired employees to find a new job exceeds the length of their standard unemployment benefits. The accompanying chart (click "GRAPHIC" tab at top of article) shows the average duration of unemployment is now 26.2 weeks, longer than the 26 weeks of state benefits normally provided to workers who lose their jobs. It’s the first time that has occurred since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping records in 1948.

It's easy for Move On to praise green jobs, but when is the last time you heard them talk about NAFTA or regulating Wall Street? I want to thank Sen. Sanders for having the courage to say what we all know, but can't seem to say aloud. Not only is this recession not over, no matter what the stock market or Federal Reserve Bank says, but job losses will continue unless we change the way we think of employment, business and the economy in this country.

The House last night extended a "lifeline" to more than 1 million jobless Americans whose unemployment payments would expire at years' end, approving an extension of benefits on a vote of 331-83.

The number of mass layoffs by U.S. employers rose by 533 in August from July, with the manufacturing sector the hardest hit, Labor Department data showed on Wednesday. The number of mass layoff actions -- defined as job cuts involving at least 50 people from a single employer -- rose to 2,690 last month, affecting 259,307 workers. That brought the total of mass layoffs so far this year to 21,184. A total of 279 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector in August, the department said.

"Since the financial meltdown began a year ago, journalism jobs have gone away at almost three times the rate jobs have disappeared in the general economy, according to a report by Unity: Journalists of Color. Unity's 2009 Layoff Tracker Report shows an average 22% increase from month to month in journalism jobs lost from September 2008 through August 2009. The general economy lost jobs at an average monthly pace of about 8% during that time, according to Unity."