I think this animated map of U.S. unemployment by county over time is relevant to understanding the scope of this great recession.

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe /multimediafinal.html

So if you do the math, it's hit the level that it was during the - anyone? anyone? - the Reagan Administration, which was the - anyone? anyone? - the Golden Age of Civilization.

No big surprise. Come on Obama...change it! Your for change right, or are you?

I thought the recession was over?

UPDATE: Hey, I saw this great report on how we saved or created 30 jobs in Arizona's 9th Congressional District with a mere $750,000 in stimulus money. Arizona only has 8 Congressional Districts, by the way...

Now 10.2% and it will get higher. What confluence of factors creates jobs? Is it government spending? We've just (irresponsibly) spent billions of dollars. Zero job growth. The unemployment rate has soared as the administration plays fast and loose with the term "created or saved" when it comes to jobs. I wonder how many jobs they credit Bush for having "saved."

No, the confluence of factors necessary for job creation are quite simple. First, investors (usually high net worth individuals) have capital to invest. This usually materializes through a drop in capital gains taxes, a precipitous drop in the marginal interest rate, a sudden upward spike in productivity or a sudden loosening of the available borrowing pool. With the US government crowding out all borrowers, even though interest rates are artificially low, there are not many takers at the trough, except one big taker.

Productivity is up but most high net worth individuals feel the target being painted on various parts of their anatomies by the administration, and most zealous Obama supporters, so most of their efforts today are directed toward salvaging what they can from the inevitable onslaught of the tax collector.

Expect the unemployment rate to top out at around 12%, resulting in larger tea parties and the complete abandonment of Obama and the radical liberal agenda we all now know is his, by anybody claiming to be an independent. The rats are already jumping from the ship but the exodus has only begun.

If the incredibly audacious and unconstitutional health care bill gets rammed (or better put, bought and sold) through the Senate, with or without the "public option," which it will, this year, look for the economy to take even longer to recover as Americans slowly wake up and realize what they have lost in the name of insuring a few million Americans (and lots of millions of illegal immigrants) and that once it is gone it can never be recovered.

This is one slick and very ruthless pack of politicains and I commend their ability to pass legislation without the American people understanding what is being foisted upon them. Shame on the American people as some of the damage these socialists are doing will be permanent, but watch for that 12% unemployment rate number.

This does not come as any surprise. It's not his exact words, but even President Obama stated that unemployment and the economy was going to get worse before it gets better. He can't be expected to clean up the mess right away that was left for him in Washington. Give him a chance. I think 7 out of ten people are judging him on his race, and others his politics. All a person has to do is listen to what others are saying before they figure this one out. I think people should give him a chance as he hasn't even been in a full year.

Very significant event, but as I've pointed out in other comments, the methodology which the Labor Department uses to calculate the unemployment rate is highly dubious to say the least.

Since 1996 the government doesn't count people who have given up and left the labor force as "unemployed", nor do they count people who are underemployed. However those losses of income do impact private spending, which has a very real impact on the economy.

On October 2, statistician John Williams of shadowstats.com reported that the Labor Department had announced its preliminary estimate of 2009's unemployment rate. Labor reported that unemployment had been overstated by about 1 million jobs. Williams believes that it was overstated by 2 million jobs, primarily because the modeling they use adds about an extra million "phantom" jobs per year.

The headline 9.8% unemployment rate consists of a bare bones measure that fails to account for several other variables. When you work into the equation people who are underemployed; people who are working part time with no benefits and who desire a shift to more permanent work, the number goes up to 17%. This is the U6 unemployment number, which up until the 1990's was the baseline statistic that showed up in all the official unemployment reports. Furthermore, when you add long term discouraged unemployed workers, the unemployment number skyrockets to 21%.

That's a fifth of the workforce that is currently not producing up to their maximum potential. This is human capital that is not being utilized. Obviously with so many people out of work and many others buried in credit card and mortgage debt, the picture for economic recovery doesn't look so good.

When you have an economy that's built around consumer spending, almost 70% according to some estimates, the results can be devastating when credit starts drying up and people have less income to spend. This is especially so for small businesses, and even some large ones. A few large national chains have closed this year and a couple of other like Macy's are on the verge. That's why commercial real estate (malls, shopping centers, etc.) will be the next area of real estate to suffer. Here in South Florida, some shopping malls are reporting 50% occupancy rates and I know that in some parts of the country its even worse. All of these issues are related, a problem which was isolated to the real estate market and some banks has cascaded off into the regular economy.

I keep hearing in the media that there are "green shoots" popping up everywhere in the economy, but frankly, that's illusory money. What is happening is that the trillions of dollars that have been extended to the banks through direct extensions of credit from the Federal Reserve and the TARP funds are being funneled into the stock market, thus producing yet another bubble based on artificially low interest rates! The Fed and Treasury apparently believe that we can get out of this problem by somehow incurring more debt, which is what is burdening the system right now! And to top it off, banks, many of which are "too large to fail" are still using their TARP funds to buy up smaller financial institutions. So the "too big to fails"are getting even bigger, while all wealth continues to become consolidated and concentrated at the top tier of the financial sector. I consider this an excessive concentration of risk that will only create another bigger problem down the road!

The expansion in debt that underlies these economic bubbles has further eroded the Dollar's credibility as the world's reserve currency. When our foreign creditors start pulling their Treasury securities and bonds, panicked policy makers will raise interest rates to protect the Treasury's ability to borrow funds. When interest rates rise, foreclosures will increase and whatever is left of the consumer economy will tank. Unemployment will also rise.

If the government can't borrow, it will just print money to pay its bills. Inflation and economic stagnation will rear its head, while the value of the dollar tanks. The cost of exports will also increase as a result of this dynamic. These will be the consequences of the actions being undertaken at the present moment.

The mistake that a lot of policymakers like Geithner and Bernanke are making is that they believe that this is a normal run of a mill recession that will eventually wash over. Far deeper issues have been exposed--this is a debt crisis that won't wash over easily.

Government tinkering will only make it worse. I don’t blame Obama for not “creating jobs” Government can’t create wealth, but they sure know how to take it.

The poor will stay poor; it’s only seems fair that under Obama the rest of us join them.

In my county, they're admitting to 15%.

They don't count those whose unemployment benefits have expired.

Meanwhile, "conservatives" will blame "liberals" and vice versa, whilst we pay no attention to the fact that the jobs were shipped overseas by rapacious multinational corporations, Hell-bent on killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.

BTW

Dollars to Donuts?

Unemployment is a lot higher than 9.8% It's horrible out there. Getting better? Yeah, right.

Hmmm! The ol' Stimulus Bill is REALLY working!