Unemployment Locked At 9.1%; Underemployment Leaps to 16.5%

Not to belabor the point... (Hey, get it? Jobless humor!)... but September remained as bleak as the past two-and-a-half years, with unemployment locked tight at 9.1%. The figure has remained above 8% since mid-2008 and at 9.1% for the past three months. More than 14 million Americans are without work.

The Labor Department claimed Friday that 103,000 jobs were added last month, which, in the grand scheme, still means one in six are out of work, and shit out of luck.

The true unemployment rate actually jumped from 16.2% in August to 16.5% in September, which adds 2.5 million “underemployed workers” — those not working that have given up on the job hunt. An additional 9.3 million are working part time and would rather work full time.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that U.S. corporations now have revenue surpluses in excess of $2 trillion. Obviously, they are not using their massive profits to either increase infrastructure or add workers.

The stock market reacted to the job report today with a Dow Jones drop of 47 points, as everybody realized nothing has changed.

Politicians on both sides of the fence abused the statistics to spew more bullshit: The White House interpreted the report as a call for Congress to pass President Obama's $447 billion jobs package proposed last month, which would extend and enlarge a temporary cut in payroll taxes—truly meaningless—and extend unemployment benefits. Republicans, of course, blamed Obama for "failed policies," however, have yet to come up with any plan of their own to bring any hope of an end to the Second Great Depression.