The Infamous Obama Unemployment Graph: Act IV-The Plot Thickens

Crossposted from http://paranoidpyro8503.blogspot.com/2009/09/infamous-obama-unemployment-graph-act.html
And here we go again! The unemployment (or should I say, “funemployment!“) numbers for the month of August have been released, and so we must update our ongoing series. And so, without further ado, may I present the chart we’ve all come to know and love so well, with all due credit to the original source (more info and graphs at the link):

And so, after briefly dipping to 9.4% last month, this month the number has gone up to 9.7%, which for those scoring at home, means it went up 0.3% last month. Also, that is the highest that unemployment has been since waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1983, before I was even born.(Pauses for a moment to let some readers contemplate on how old they feel all of a sudden…)

Part of the problem is that some of the “discouraged workers,” the ones not counted because they’re not actively out looking for jobs, went back to looking for work, and suddenly they’re being counted again. But there were still 216,000 jobs lost, so that didn’t exactly help either. A bit of perspective from the Wall Street Journal online:

The rise in unemployment, after dipping to 9.4% in July, came as more Americans returned to the work force. Teenage unemployment hit 25.5%, the highest since the government began keeping records in 1948. Most economists expect the rate to top 10% in coming months and stay over 9% through 2010 (emphasis mine on both accounts).

Hmmm, I wonder if minimum wage rising twice in the last year has anything to do with teenage unemployment……nah, that’s just crazy talk.