I finally found it

Here was the higher U.S. unemployment figure I was referring to in the last post.  It took me a while to figure out where I had read it, and find the quote.

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics employed seasonal adjusting chicanery to mitigate job losses. Not seasonally adjusted (NSA), 954,000 jobs were lost. Additionally, the BLS’s hokey Net Business Birth/Death Model unfathomably created 72,000 jobs in December,“ commented Bill King (The King Report).

As you can see this is a much higher number than the 524,000 that The Bureau of Labor put forth for December.

And then, in a different article, John Williams at shadowstats.com did a chart that includes all the people that have left the workforce for one reason or another that has the U.S. unemployment figure at the 17.5% level.  Which is a very different figure than the commonly accepted one of 7.2%. 

I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two numbers.

Do whatever it takes to pay down your debt and get a safety emergency stash of cash, because, unfortunately, all signs are leading me to the conclusion that the lay-offs that have happened already are only the warm-up act. 

And my dear bloggers, I know this isn’t the most fun to read, but every once in a while I have to let it out or I feel like I’m going to burst.  I get worried about all of you out there, and once in a while I need to say, “Be careful, this is what I see coming around the corner.“ 

I shall try my mightiest to give the financial stuff a break for the next few days, weeks, however long I can go. 

Bye for now. xo

Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, January 12, 2009 in Chewing the Fat