The report from the Labor Department is sure to raise fresh concerns about the depth and length of an ongoing recession, and could figure into hearings on Capitol Hill today about a proposed bailout of the Big Three Detroit automakers.
The unemployment rate rose from 6.5 percent to 6.7 percent, the highest since the recession of the early 1990s. The figure was tempered by the fact that 422,000 workers left the labor market, likely discouraged by their inability to find a job. The unemployment rate only includes people actively looking for work.
Everyone keeps saying how we can’t compare today to the Great Depression since unemployment was hovering close to 30% then. Well if numbers like this keep happening, then we are going to start needing louder alarm bells to sound.