("It Didn't Crush My Head"; Artist: Troy Johnson)
THE NOVEMBER JOB PICTURE
Seemingly crushed America is hanging on. It ain't pretty as some Americans would say, but play enough with the numbers and we'll have something in the job picture to help us feel a bit more positive. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims under state assistance fell 24,000 between October 30th, and November 6th, 2010 to 435,000. For the same period last year there were 507,000 claims. That's the positive. I guess. (http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm)
What's not so rosy is a number in the same report that states "The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Oct. 23 was 8,624,679." That's a whopping number of Americans hanging onto the public doll right now.
I'm one of them. I live in North Texas, and it seems that our regional economy is better by many reports than other parts of the nation. If that's true, I would hate to be elsewhere. So I guess that's another positive on which to hang. It could be worse somewhere else, right?
I've been unemployed except for some small side work since early January of this year. But it really is a matter of perspective, right? We can dwell on all that isn't working and all who are not working, particularly the army of over 8 million who claimed benefits in October, or we can see that the numbers are down from last year.
What's your perspective?
Troy Johnson
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