Apr 11, 2009

Total Unemployment Rate at 19.8%

Why is this EHS News?
There is a direct link to and hard job market and increases in serious injuries and incidents.
 
In the near future this will lead our nation to be literally suffering on the job without insurance, skilled EHS professionals or employees who 'buy in' to a safety culture. Leaving employers with the tab and workers with the scars...
 
Real Numbers - (BLS Jobs Reporting Is Seriously Flawed, at Best.) During the Clinton Administration, "discouraged workers" — those who had given up looking for a job because there were no jobs to be had — were redefined so as to be counted only if they had been "discouraged" for less than a year. This time qualification defined away the bulk of the discouraged workers. Adding them back into the total unemployed, unemployment in line with common experience, as estimated by the SGS-Alternate Unemployment Measure, rose to about 19.8% in March, from 19.1% in February.
 
It is the history my father visited in the 80's and my grandfather in the 40's.
 
These are hard times and we need to learn from history or become it.