I hope we are not overlooking the Railbird theory of economics. I think he could be right about sin being the culprit. Lets assume the additional 2% rise in unemployment since July of 2000 is the fault of immoral sinners. Could happen. Unemployment in manufacturing all down substantially since July 2000, sin is a possible reason. Overall job-cutting and downsizing among US manufacturing corporations and retail establishments continued in July, wiping out tens of thousands more jobs and further belying claims of an economic recovery. It marked the 30th consecutive month in which manufacturing employment has fallen. Sinners all of them.
Some 470,000 people (sinners) stopped looking for work in July, dropping out of the total workforce figure used in calculating unemployment percentages. As a consequence, the official unemployment rate fell slightly, from 6.4 percent to 6.2 percent. However, manufacturing employment dropped 71,000 and retail employment fell by 14,000. Since January payroll employment has fallen by 486,000. The official unemployment figure is only a pale reflection of the actual situation, since it does not include some 2 million long-term unemployed—workers who have become discouraged and stopped looking for work altogether. Oh yeah, another item, the average workweek shrank to 36.6 hours from 36.7 in June. Manufacturing hours fell to 40.1 from 40.3. Less hours to work, more to sin. War possible reason economy may recover, I doubt it. The US economy grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter of 2003, mostly a result of military spending surrounding the Iraq invasion. In fact, the Bush administration has carried out the largest increase in military spending since the Korean War. However, the growth rate is still far below the level required to generate an overall increase in employment. Furthermore, military spending does nothing to increase the overall wealth of society and is helping to expand the massive US budget deficit, creating additional pressure for reductions in social services. Like Vetrans benefits, why worry about the Americans who fought wars that can't help a guy get elected. One more nice little item, not only are more people being laid off, they are taking longer to find new jobs. Median length of joblessness is 12.1 weeks, the highest point since July 1967. If you don't believe me check it out for yourself. As many large US firms announce further job cuts almost daily it is easy to see why the American economy is in trouble. Sin or no sin.
wil.
