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"The March employment numbers, out this morning, are bleak: 8.5 percent of Americans officially unemployed, 663,000 more jobs lost. But if you include people who are out of work and have given up trying to find a job, the real unemployment rate is 9 percent. And if you include people working part time who'd rather be working full time, it's now up to 15.6 percent. One in every six workers in America is now either unemployed or underemployed." -- from a 4.3.09 Truthout piece by former Labor secretary Robert Reich, called "It's A Depression."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 4, 2009 at 12:30 PM

comment #1

Moises Chiullan says ...

My wife became part of the April numbers yesterday afternoon. when a company starts laying off administrative support, they're circling the drain.

We're about to hit the next wave of business bankruptcies and failures now that it's a new fiscal quarter.

Posted by Moises Chiullan at April 4, 2009 1:48 PM

comment #2

Gordie Lachance says ...

If it's such a depression, why can't I get a ticket to a Yankees game?

Posted by Gordie Lachance at April 4, 2009 1:50 PM

comment #3

masethan says ...

if it's such a depression, why is it that the fast and furious is making HUGE bank? 70 million on the 4th film??????

Posted by masethan at April 4, 2009 2:05 PM

comment #4

Devin Faraci says ...

Masethan, are you even remotely familiar with the Great Depression?

Posted by Devin Faraci at April 4, 2009 2:15 PM

comment #5

frankbooth says ...

Just for laughs, here's a comment by someone called americanrat, posted on this blog on October 3, 2006:

"Today, America stands at a crossroads.

The Dow Industrial Average is trading at an all-time, dangerous high.

The nation's unemployment rate holds steady at 4.6%, and dozens of Americans are without work.

More Americans own homes than ever before, creating substandard, hand-to-mouth living conditions for the nation's apartment managers and slumlords.

Middle class tax cuts have given most Americans more money than they know what to do with. The result? Ugly Bluetooth cell phones sticking out of people's ears, and the rise of a dangerous new generation of Elmo dolls, TMX Elmo.

Finally, low gas prices spell even more danger for Mother Earth. As the unnatural lack of hurricanes this season proves, global warming is a bigger threat than ever.

What can the average American do in these uncertain times?

The answer is simple.

They can vote for change. They can vote Democrat.

Today's new and improved Democratic party can end the dangerous and risky stock boom. They can bring the price of your home down, so that even the least fortunate American can afford to buy it. They can increase the price of gas and save Mother Earth. And of course, they can raise taxes on all Americans so no Americans can afford Bluetooth again.

And, perhaps most importantly, returning Congress to Democrats will ensure that the urban cores of our greatest cities - New York, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco - will be quickly and efficiently rebuilt after al Queda destroys them with dirty bombs and backpack nukes.

So this November, just say "Hell no!" to the risky Republican policies that have brought us to the brink of unknown and uncharted economic territory.

Vote Democrat, and return us to the good old days, when enlightened minds like Jimmy Carter steered our great nations economic and foreign policy, and Bill Clinton gave us moral codes any American could follow. Remember, there's nothing wrong with having some fun with an intern as long as she's 19 years old.

Vote Democrat and together we can all find out what "Blue America" really means.""

Where are you now, americanrat?

Posted by frankbooth at April 4, 2009 2:52 PM

comment #6

masethan says ...

i know that movies thrived in the great depression..what I am saying is I don't think we are in a depression yet...and I doubt the audience for fast and furious needed to get away from their problems for 2 hours..

Posted by masethan at April 4, 2009 3:20 PM

comment #7

masethan says ...

when there is a soup line THEN we can call it the next great depression..how much did movies cost back then 50 cents?

Posted by masethan at April 4, 2009 3:23 PM

comment #8

frankbooth says ...

"when there is a soup line, THEN we can call it the next great depression."

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=middle+class+americans+food+bank&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Uh-oh.

Posted by frankbooth at April 4, 2009 3:37 PM

comment #9

Chicago48 says ...

Not a depression, it's a "regression". When you think about it. People's pay, hours, and benefits are being slashed. The only active employer is the government. Two friends and one relative hired by the Govt this past month. All degreed. In fact, I was reading that the ex-Wall Streeters have moved to Washington and are not on the payroll of the Treasury and Fed departments.

If you count the "underemployed", part timers, consultants and free lancers (who don't have steady work, but are living from project to project), then yeh, the u/e rate is above 10%.

Posted by Chicago48 at April 4, 2009 6:28 PM

comment #10

azmoviegoer says ...

II feel like I just got mental whiplash from going from the beautiful moment captured above back to the bleak reality below.

Posted by azmoviegoer at April 4, 2009 7:47 PM

comment #11

azmoviegoer says ...

Also, Moises I know it may not mean much to say this since we've never met, but my thoughts go out to you and your wife and family. I hope that you are able to turn that situation around quickly.

We are a community of sorts here on HE and I definitely feel for anyone in this community facing similar circumstances. Sometimes the expression there but for the grace of God go I is not just a cliche. My wife and I are both employed in the travel industry. Talk about having your eggs in the wrong basket for this economy.

Posted by azmoviegoer at April 4, 2009 8:01 PM

comment #12

D.Z. says ...

Gordie: "If it's such a depression, why can't I get a ticket to a Yankees game?"

Because there're less people attending the game?

mase: "if it's such a depression, why is it that the fast and furious is making HUGE bank? 70 million on the 4th film??????"

Matinee ticket inflation, most likely.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090404/ap_on_bi_ge/lights_camera_jobs;_ylt=AjyiWreZIJQTDDjOttToiUPCw5R4;_ylu=X3oDMTJsa2pramx2BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNDA0L2xpZ2h0c19jYW1lcmFfam9icwRjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNqb2JsZXNzbWFrZXQ-

Stole this link from Crooks and Liars.

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/03/us_unemployment_higher_than_in_france

Posted by D.Z. at April 4, 2009 8:16 PM

comment #13

D.Z. says ...

Oh, it was can't attend. I guess the reason you can't is because they're cutting back on ticket prices, since tv broadcasts don't bring in the revenue they would have in the past.

Posted by D.Z. at April 4, 2009 8:17 PM

comment #14

NotImpressed1Yet says ...

D.Z. shut the fuck up. You know as much about the Yankees as you do movies. Yankees tickets cost more than they ever have. They just opened a new stadium.

Posted by NotImpressed1Yet at April 4, 2009 8:26 PM

comment #15

D.Z. says ...

NotImpressed: Then it's probably the stimulus checks or a lot more nosebleed seats than usual.

Posted by D.Z. at April 4, 2009 9:39 PM

comment #16

Moises Chiullan says ...

azmoviegoer: thanks for the sentiment. we'll be ok, been expecting it. that doesn't make it any easier to find her work with thousands applying for everything out there.

Anyone who still has stock in TRC Solutions should dump it. They're laying off administrative support, accounting, and people who've been with them for decades.

Posted by Moises Chiullan at April 4, 2009 11:49 PM

comment #17

austin111 says ...

And, yeah, the so-called stimulus package is too damn small. When FDR took the reins during the "Great Depression" of the '30s, he got a much larger stimulus package for the times and it was actually doing some good until it got stalled by the "we've got to keep the budget balanced" congressional stalwarts. It took WWII to finally bring it to an end. So now we have a bunch of ninny Republicans and a few ninny Dems saying much the same thing --- we can't spend, we've got to "balance the budget". So we can decidedly expect things to get much, much worse if anyone listens to these poops. Unfortunately, spending is about the only way to get out of this. Because we really don't have much of a safety net in this country, folks. Things are going to get a lot hairier before they ever turn around. At least that's one thing Europe and the rest of the developed world has over us.

Posted by austin111 at April 5, 2009 7:04 AM

comment #18

astrophore says ...

One thing I'm convinced of is that our current economic scenario -- call it what you will -- is going to be different than any other analogue in modern American, European or Asian history. That doesn't mean better or worse, but it means that reductive comparisons to the 1930s or Japan's 'lost decade' will be somewhat meaningless. The complexity and interconnectedness of our world all but ensures this.

Nobody truly understands the implications of whatever corrective actions we take. I would also argue for a bigger, more focused stimulus package, but what the hell do I know? There are no good answers here.

I'd like to quote Yeats's "The Second Coming," but that would make me look like a histrionic (yet glib) apocalypse fetishist.

But the center does not appear to be able to hold. Falcon flying away from falconer and whatnot.

Posted by astrophore at April 5, 2009 7:58 AM

comment #19