Unemployment: a river not a pool

The BBC reports that unemployment has risen at its slowest rate since July 2008. What it doesn’t do is point out why.One reason is that economic inactivity has increased. People who would otherwise show up in the unemployment numbers have simply dropped out of the workforce.

There’s a short term and a long-term story in today's job numbers. The stock market did not like the short-term story, and fell sharply as a result. But the short-term news is not as bad as it looks, while the long-term news is actually quite disturbing. 

Imagine an industry had, through its own recklessness, caused over 10,000 deaths in the UK. Or imagine that a government minister had, by his own stupidity, caused hundreds of deaths. There would surely be demands for severe punishment. But in a sense, this is just what has happened, with pitifully little outcry. This is because, in utilitarian terms, the misery caused by mass unemployment is equivalent to very many deaths.

The EU Observer reports France to hold jobs summit as unemployment hits 12-year high A sharp rise in France's unemployment figures is putting pressure on President Nicolas Sarkozy to deliver, with over half the French population wanting the candidates for the spring presidential election to focus their energies on maintaining jobs.

CATHERINE RAMPELL tells the troubling story of the long-term unemployed in America, who often find that even their job applications are unwelcome:A recent review of job vacancy postings on popular sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Craigslist revealed hundreds that said employers would consider (or at least “strongly prefer”) only people currently employed or just recently laid off.

Don Paskini claims that higher welfare benefits help people find work, pointing out that between 1996 and 2009, the numbers of lone parents in work increased, at the same time as benefits did.His commenters are right to say the evidence doesn’t prove his claim, because perhaps even more people would have found jobs if benefits had been lower. But the evidence does prove something - that higher benefits can be consistent with lower benefit claims.

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 216,000 in March, and the unemployment rate stands at 8.8%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Revisions for January and February were very small (adding 5,000 jobs to the January totals and 2,000 to February). Since a recent low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.5 million.