If the working-age population is 150 million people and the # of employed ppl is 142.5 million, the

unemployment rate is 5%

True or False

If the working-age population is 150 million people and the # of employed ppl is 142.5 million, the official..mortgage lenders

It%26#039;s true.

142.5/150 = .95 which is 95%

100-95 = 5%

U.S. Economy in shambles?

For those of you who get on here and whine about how bad the economy is, here are some points which you are more than welcome to argue. The catch is, I have cited all othese facts so you also must have valid CREDIBLE sources or I don%26#039;t want to hear it.

First of all the Dow Jones Industrial Average has broken its own record 3 times in the last two years. - Fact. Pay attention to the news.

Unemployment rate is the lowest that it has been in 30 years at 4.9% (down from 10.9% during the Carter administration.)*

Inflation in the U.S. is currently hovering at about 2.5%. The lowest it has been since Ronald Regan was President.*

Real Estate prices are the lowest they have been since the late 1950%26#039;s taking into account the relative inflation of the economy. - Wall Street Journal

A higher percentage of employers now more than EVER are paying above minimum wage by an average of about $2.09.*

*= U.S. Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics

U.S. Economy in shambles?unemployment rate

There you go again, using actual facts to make your point. You are a terrible person. ;)

U.S. Economy in shambles? loan

On July 6, 2007, The Bureau Of Labor Statistics Released New Jobs Figures – 132,000 Jobs Created In June. Since August 2003, more than 8.2 million jobs have been created, with more than 2 million jobs created over the twelve months ending in June. Our economy has now added jobs for 46 straight months, and the unemployment rate remains low at 4.5 percent.|||Amen~|||Right on! Can%26#039;t stand all the whining! Thanks for sharing all the facts for the whiners!|||I really think certain parts of the media and entertainment industries try to yell wolf because there is a republican in the white house.|||Whoever said the U.S. has a bad economy?

If someone has, he is an ignoramous.|||You forgot the debt, larger than any debt any country has ever had, making your prosperity somewhat meaningless.

And the plummeting value of the dollar, making your debt even larger.

But sure, if you put blinkers on to avoid looking at that, it all seems rosy, doesnt it?|||You are absolutely correct. The economy is great. I do not see the cause for all the whining from the left, except that they are not getting enough for free...|||post this in the immigration section...see how fast you get flamed by your own politicos

lol|||what part of the people don%26#039;t care about wall street don%26#039;t you comprehend? What we care about is going to the grocery story and our dollars are going a lot less... mean while corportae salaries are shooting through the roof... and as for unemployment rates... how many have given up looking for work?

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer|||But how can this be ? We have to make President Bush look bad because he kicked our ----- in the elections and we know that the Democrat Party is the chosen party to run this country. So you must stop posting this kind of information the people are not yet ready for the truth.|||Why is the U.S dollar collapsing if it is so great? That $2.00 above minimum wage wouldn%26#039;t get you a studio apt in Watts even if you did work 40 hours doing it.

Real Estate prices are huge compared to the actual amount of people able to buy a home based on todays wages. Obviously the Wal Street Journal didn%26#039;t take into account the sinking wages of the American worker.

Interest rates are going up.

Your money doesn%26#039;t go as far as it used to because of rising gas prices and mortgage payments.

20% of your taxes goes to paying the interest on the National Debt which in turn goes to the same banks that loaned the money to the nation and the same banks who give money to the GOP. That%26#039;s why the GOP doesn%26#039;t complain about the huge debt and rising deficits that add to that rising national debt.

The infrastructure is falling apart in this country as witnessed by N.Y.C%26#039;s huge vent system blow up a couple of weeks ago and as witnessed with the bridge collapse in Minnesota yesterday.

Our schools are getting cut AGAIN.

And, your president has us in an endless war that is costing this country trillions of dollars.

The jobs being created are those that pay minumum wage and are in the service sector. The middle class jobs are disappearing while CEO%26#039;s salaries are rocketing past Saturn. Please, get the facts before you post nonsense.

The people benefitting the most from the DOW are equity corporations and hedge fund managers. The DOW has taken over 7 years to get up to just over 3000 above the highs of the Clinton administration. During Clinton the Dow TRIPLED. It%26#039;s obvious the country always does much better under a Democrat than a Republican. I%26#039;m not even a Democrat and yet it is quite obvious.

Interesting that 70% of Americans agree with me on this issue.

http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=27...|||The average American isn’t experiencing this “great” economy. Just telling them that it is great isn’t going to work. Americans are deep into debt, aren’t saving any money, are worried about health care, are struggling with tuition payments etc.|||Let%26#039;s llok at your %26quot;facts%26quot; one-by-one, shall we?

1. Dow Jones is a scaled dollar value of 30 stocks comprising the index. Notice that Dow is never adjusted for inflation of dollar value as designed. Today it closed at 13,463. The index was over 11,000 in Sep 2000. A 22% gain over 7 years. But, to compare apples to apples, let%26#039;s see what happened to the dollar over the same time period: approximately 30% loss in value! this is compared to majority of world%26#039;s currencies, not even gold which is supposed to be a benchmark. So, as of today, we are sitting at an 8% loss in Dow in real money. But, a better indicator of stock market could be S%26amp;P500 index since it%26#039;s more broad. There, we are still below 2000 levels. Source: Yahoo Finance.

2. Unemployment rate does fairly represent the health of economy, although it is important. The real situation is that the rate has been largely flat for the last 10 years, but the quality of jobs are on decline due to outsourcing.

3. The way the inflation is calculated by the government does not have a leg to stand on. I do not have the patience to explain all the problems with it, but you need to look at large expenses such as medical, college tuition, housing and food. Low cost of Chinese-made crap as well as falling prices of some goods due to technology improvement/outsourcing do not represent the real picture.

4. I am not sure how Real Estate prices support your point. If they are low, this means people can%26#039;t afford it because of bad economy.

5. The minimum wage has been unchanged until very recently since early 1990s. $2 above it doesn%26#039;t even cover the official inflation number.

Now, US economy is not in shambles, but it%26#039;s far from outstanding by many measures. Look at defficits, real growth rates, huge problems down the road with Social Security and Medicare.|||It certainly is! Why do all the idiots believe the wonderfull figures that the government pulls out of its ar se! Can%26#039;t they work things out for themselves? If the countries economy is so dandy, why is it trillions of dollars in deficit? Wake up, people!|||yawho - perhaps you believe it%26#039;s collapsing - and if it is (of course you have NO source for your statement) it would be because of the people that are against everything - showing the United States *aren%26#039;t* united.|||Dow Jones is simply SHUT DOWN if it starts to free fall like it has done numerous times in the past two years..that is a FACT. This is to keep it so it doesn%26#039;t keep falling.

Unemployment only takes into account those who are actively getting unemployment benefits, so the number is knowingly skewed into showing only ONE group of people. People who have been out of work and who are still looking for new work, but who don%26#039;t get unemployment are not accounted for.

Inflation doesn%26#039;t take into account FOOD and ENERGY, what people are spending most of their money on. To show how bad it is, there are only very few people who have any savings to speak of.

Real Estate prices are a result from high mortgage rates and banks scared to loan out money because of all the foreclosures which are happening...from ARMS and the regular loans. Real Estate is tanking currently.

As far as paying above Minimum wage...Wow...that still is not a livable wage. You have to be making at least $20 an hour to be...THAT is not happening. How many times in 30 years has our Senators and Reps gave themselves a raise? How many times have they raised the minimum wage?

I am not going to search for well known facts because I don%26#039;t have the time. Don%26#039;t want to believe them, then fine, I don%26#039;t care.

Ever hear of North American Union? It is something like the EU with Mexico, the USA and Canada joined into one. Key words to look up are NAU, SPP, and the Amero (which is the currency they are trying to get the three to use)|||The economy is great, but to admit otherwise would require them admitting that socialism sucks. I think their heads would explode if they had to do that.

The economy today is stronger than almost ever before. There are many reasons for it but the primary one is people, you and I, have been able to keep more of OUR money and we have put that in to play in the overall financial growth of our country.

The tax relief packages of 2001 and 2003 have stimulated almost five years of steady growth. Federal revenues have risen 37% during the last three years and that is expected to continue through 2007. The deficit this year is expected to be 1.5% of GDP, which is below the average of the last 40 years. Productivity growth since 2001 has averaged 2.8 percent annually, which is considerably higher than the past three decades. New jobs since 2003 are at 8.2 million and the current unemployment rate of 4.5% is lower than the averages of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. If you want a job, there is one out there. Since 2000 real after-tax income is up 9.9 percent which has translated itself into a robust yet steady economy allowing more people to purchase primary homes than ever before in history.

So there it is in a nutshell, a great economy driven primarily by allowing we the people to keep OUR money. It is called equality of opportunity, what America is all about. But this is about to come to an end and the ramifications to our security are huge. The primary reason America is the greatest State in the world is due to our financial strength, anything that damages that puts us at great risk.

The Democrats have passed a budget that will eliminate those financial stimulus packages effectively raising taxes on every single American to the tune of $736 billion. One key issue, they are eliminating the lower tax rate on capital gains, the one element that has so effectively stimulated the economy in the last six years.

The AMT is failing and must be addressed. The Democrat solution to this crisis of their own creation; a 4% tax increase on small businesses and the upper tax bracket. The upper tax bracket is defined as %26gt;$80,000 per year in AGI, so America bend over, the Democrats are going to give it to you again. Small businesses employ over half of the private sector employees. What do you think a tax increase is going to do to private jobs growth? These are not companies that are outsourcing jobs; these are red, white and blue American jobs the Democrats are going to eliminate. These are the companies that have created over 60% of the new jobs in the last decade, and now the Democrats are going to punish them for that success.

This is not about conservatives and liberals. We are far beyond that debate. It is about America’s capital survival versus sweeping socialism. The capitalist economy works and that is proven, socialism fails, that is known. The two systems are diametrically opposed. Do not for one moment believe they can be blended into a benign socialist system. There is nothing benign about it. Socialism is a cancer, and it is always malignant and to save our country it must be removed in any manner possible.|||I guess the only thing that they hear was that Canada%26#039;s $ is worth more than ours. I am sure I heard that too. But what for one day? All of the other things overshadow that.

Why do liberals deny that the US econmy is BOOMING?

i know, i will hear all sorts of lies and hatred but the stock market doesnt lie aand neither does housing sales and the low unemployment rate.

so vent liberals, call me names i like it!

Why do liberals deny that the US econmy is BOOMING?

Because they try to manipulate public opinion by saying whatever is convenient, without regard to fact or reason. Then they take public opinion polls to %26#039;influence%26#039; voters and politicians alike...

I am sure unemployment would be a lot lower if we did not have millions of new illegal immigrants among the unemployed.

Why do liberals deny that the US econmy is BOOMING?

loan

How or why? Why, because they want nothing more than for Bush to fail. If that brings the rest of the country down as well, then so be it.|||HA! BUSTING is more like it!!!

Can%26#039;t you admit how many people are unemployed and/or in so knee deep of debt they need a shovel!

How many service industry jobs are being created? GOODBYE SOFTWARE PROGRAMMER! HELLLOOOO BURGER FLIPPING!!!|||Because a booming economy (and this time it%26#039;s not based on a huge dot.com bubble like Clinton%26#039;s %26quot;boom%26quot;) shows that tax cuts and reaganomics works, and that goes against their democrat ideals.|||Because it is not. Our economy has had very limited successes recently. But our last booming economy was under a liberal president with a liberal congress.|||Because it proves them false and does not give them an issue for mudslinging.|||It probably depends on how you measure it. If you look at numbers like the stock market, yes the economy is doing OK. Not sure I would say booming but definately not bad. If you look at average American income or amount of disposable income then the ecomony is in bad shape. Since there is no universal measurment that is why you have defering opinions.|||So you can ignore that the housing market is about to burst? You can ignore we are a nation that lives on borrowed money?

Low unemployment numbers mean nothing at all.

I dont want to call you names at all sexy I want to love you with a 2 x 4 and some lube.Maybe not the lube it depends.|||Because they know that Bill Clinton failed as a president and they do not want to admit that President George W. Bush is the best man in charge. They are in denial!|||They may be too overwhelmed by the loss of jobs and housing in this country.|||The unemployment rate is the highest since the great depression. Corporate profits are higher than ever, but the median family income has gone down by over $9000/year in the last 5 years to the lowest rate in history (adjusted for inflation). The US economy isn%26#039;t booming at all! 0.1% of the people in the country are doing better. Everyone else is doing worse. That is not a healthy economy...that is feudalism and is not sustainable. It will crash if it continues.

Corporate profits has little to do with the overall economy of the nation. It%26#039;s great if you are the head of a corporation, but the lowered standard of living is bad for everyone else.

Fascism is, in part, the embrace of corporatism. This is what is obviously going on. How do corporate profits help you unless you happen to be one of the moneyed?

Median family income really shows the true state of the economy, and ours is crashing. If you enjoy having blinders on and cheering while your life goes down the tubes, go for it...but don%26#039;t drag the rest of us down with you!

My father likes to say %26quot;Figures never lie, but liars sure can figure%26quot;. To really understand the significance of statistics, one must understand what the figures are measuring and how. They 4.5% unemployment rate is based on how many new applications for unemployment are approved compared to the number of people in the country eligible for employment. The percentage of people that are actually unemployed or underemployed compared to the number of people that actually want to work (not counting stay at home parents, etc) is more that 13%, compared to 9% at the end of the Clinton administration. You also have to consider which areas the job growth (which has been a net loss every year that Bush has been president and is the lowest percentage in the history of our country) has been in. Service industry (mostly sub-living wage jobs) have grown considerably, while living wage manufacturing and other middle class jobs have dropped sharply.|||the economy is coming back sloooooowwwwly- because of the PEOPLE not because of George W - who was the one to create the brutal DIVE in the economy, plus the one who expanded government, instead of (as promised) reduce it.

And he was the one who blew the surplus and gives RECORD BREAKING deficit on - wow! a great investment like IRAQ-

sweet!

so how much is your gas these days- it was $1.29 when W took office- hows it going on paying rent or mortgage for (americans) ya? Is your job keeping up with the cost of living-

In california, Arnold just signed a bill allowing Walmart NOT to have to provide health insurance to it%26#039;s workers.

* I hear America the Beautiful playing in the background *

Best,

Omni-|||Why do you like being called names Remind you of your childhood? and of your wife.....|||All those that say the job base is in the toilet and affecting economy...

Straight from the department of Labor

The second is corperate data...

Third is a hard hitter....consumer spending not so great there, but it is cyclic...|||Apparently those Ford workers in Michigan and Ohio missed the memo...|||You are so handsome and smart. Is that what you want to hear?|||Because it isn%26#039;t. It%26#039;s growing at a fair clip, but the housing market is beginning to deflate, job growth is pitiful (keep in mind that 144,000 people join the ranks of the employable every month, so a month that creates less than 144,000 jobs means a net gain in unemployment) and real wages have been dropping for the better part of a decade. Is Bush responsible for all this? Hell no; the goverrnment in general has only limited ability to control GDP, but it does shape the direction and tone due to its sheer size, and in that respect his fiscal policies have to be viewed as failures.|||I believe unemployment is what 4.5%?

Damn near record lows.

Stock market booms

All in the face of record high gas prices? Which are obviously as you know, now falling.

You can%26#039;t get a liberal to admit anything that Bush has successfully done. It just won%26#039;t happen. So they continue to rally the %26quot;we hate Bush%26quot; crowd and hope for the best. When, back in reality, that%26#039;s a minority crowd. That%26#039;s why they continue to lose.|||well, if you look at statistics, most of the jobs that were created were in the construction area, and not in IT as many like to think.

actually, the only economies that are flourishing are those in europe considering that the families annual increase has gone up. the US is exactly like china, economy flourishes while wages go down.|||I thought you lived in Taylor? Anyhow, foreclosures are up, and so are bankruptcies. I%26#039;m glad that Alan Greenspan dropped interest rates to offset the economy slump that occured because of Bush, but I hate the fact that Bush took credit for it. He is responsible, but not in a good way. Those interest rates are back up, and people can%26#039;t sell their homes. Which means they won%26#039;t be buying any, either.|||It%26#039;s because they do look at the facts that they come to their opinion. When you say the US economy... that means the whole US economy... not just what you pick to come to your opinion. Remember, we are the United States of America. So when you say the US economy is booming...include all of the economy.|||Liberals think income polarization is the problem. Basically the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and middle class jobs are disappearing which forces the formerly middle class to take lower paying jobs. This is a recipe for disaster especially for the conservatives and for the economy as a whole but the conservatives in power are ignoring it.|||The economy is not booming, only the bottom line of big business is exploding from cheap overseas labor. 70% of our IT jobs have been exported to India. 100% of our textile jobs have gone to China. Nearly 50% of our manufacturing jobs and engineering jobs are now in Mexico. Domistic corporations like GM and Ford, who cannot export labor, are dieing on the vine.

Our government has become a plutarchy, for the rich and by the rich. And you have swallowed the bait hook line and sinker.|||Housing sales are dropping and we may be headed for a real estate bust similar to the one we had in the 80%26#039;s. Unemployment figures are notoriously inaccurate since they only reflect government jobs and do not take into account the private sector. Don%26#039;t believe everything FOX news tells you, go out and read a book. We have not had a minimum wage increase in 10 years! How is that possible in such a booming economy?

This is about Economics?

Can anyone tell me what country has the second largest unemployment rate? Also does anyone have data sets for this or even know how to compute data sets? I%26#039;m not doing so well in this class and need some major help!!!!!!!! Thanks to anyone who can. Also serious answers only!!!!

This is about Economics?

Nauru(2005 est.)

This is about Economics? loan

try the CIA world handbook, and the Economist website...

Why does socialism encourage laziness?

Remember how hundreds of thousands of students in France were angrily protesting? It was about a new law in France that allows a company to fire people under the age of 26, without cause, within 2 years of being hired.

Wow! Imagine that. You might get fired from your first job.

As it happens, the whole point of the law was to encourage companies to hire young people. The unemployment rate among young people in France is 23% and in many suburbs, it is twice that. Meanwhile, French companies are understandably loath to hire inexperienced 22-year-olds when they cannot fire them.

What these massive demonstrations reveal is the narcissism, laziness and irresponsibility inculcated by socialist societies.

In America, most of us would call the French young people%26#039;s attitudes %26quot;spoiled.%26quot;

Socialism teaches its citizens to expect everything, even if they contribute nothing.

Socialism teaches its citizens that they have a plethora of rights and few corresponding obligations.

Why does socialism encourage laziness?

The base premise of socialism is that you are not intelligent enough to know how to care for yourself and therefore the rich elite in Congress will take care of you from cradle to grave. It is fact that the socialists have been pushing this agenda for over 60 years (Social Security) and have actually created generations of families who rely on the government to tell them what to do and think. Government will never improve education nor will it allow you to use your money to send your children to good schools. Socialists want your children to grow up as mushrooms in socialist schools to perpetuate the elites control on your lives.

Socialism is a disease and should be eradicated. It has failed wherever it has been tried whereas capitalism has succeeded wherever it has been tried. If anyone tells you we should us a hybrid system, they are socialists and they are lying.

Why does socialism encourage laziness?

loan

It provides no incentives to anyone to produce since all members of society receive the same from the benevolent state. Kind of like the Democratic Party platform on most issues.|||With socialism people get whether they work or not. Under capitalism you have to work or you starve. There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems, but if the people are properly educated, and are taught the proper work ethic, then socialism might be more advantageous. Under capitalism there are so many poor people, and the rich at the other end of the scale have more than they can ever want or need. I guess capitalism, with compassion might be good. It%26#039;s a toss-up that is moot and would take up more space than here at Yahoo. I guess if we all lived with the knowledge that we can%26#039;t take it with us, things would be different.|||Socialism demands outward standards of equality but has no means by which to change attitudes. People are naturally selfish by nature, not benevolent as Marx and others theorized. Socialism works great on paper until actual humans are involved.

Does that mean capitalism is perfect? No, not at all. No government or economic system is perfect. But the key is to guarantee as many rights for everyone and the incentive to use their talents and resources, not to just rob the rich to give to the poor.

***Before any of you launch any rants about my reply, I voted Republican my whole life until the 2004 election, when I held my nose and voted for Kerry. I wrote in a vote for John McCain in the 2000 general election. I%26#039;m still trying to figure out if I can tick off more important people by calling myself a pro-life, pro-gun Democrat or a pro-free-speech, pro-environment Republican. :-)|||At moderate levels,socialism will benefit society at large.go Hillary and the new socialist order.%26lt;dems%26gt;2008.embrace it comrades.peace and love be with you..|||You know, I think a liberal put it best: %26quot;Ask not what your country can do for you: Ask what you can do for your country.%26quot;

Where did they go so wrong? When did they get so confused and think it was the other way around? Socialism is just a nicer form of Communism.|||Wrong again you social retard. That particular law was capitalistic, not socialist. It benefited the corporations, not the society.

Socialism teaches its people that society is the most valuable tool we have over all others is society. Society is a team sport where, if the coach and the players are doing what they should be doing, the WHOLE team prospers through hard work, the free-agents who only work for themselves are shunned from the rest of the group, and those who use silly superstitions to try and improve their performance are shrugged off as long as those rituals are not forced on other people.

Society is the greatest tool people have. It is up to all of us to keep it in working order. Socialism benefits the whole of society. Capitalism only benefits those %26quot;free agents%26quot; who are only looking out for themselves.|||Why work hard? Everyone gets the same thing. Socialism discourages prosperity and therefore, pride.|||Capitalism creates national wealth.

Socialism consumes national wealth.

It is a much better system to keep the middle-class wealthy enough to pay for the services it needs on its own. Rather than create a massive bureaucracy to manage healthcare, for instance, it%26#039;s better that each individual manages their own. The government should work on the reason healthcare is so costly in order to reduce that cost rather than take on the cost.

Good Economy No Employment Question?

Daniel can%26#039;t hold a job in an economy with a 2.5 unemployment rate! The strange part is he%26#039;s and MBA with a real estate broker%26#039;s license and he%26#039;s working on his second masters in chemistry but he is consistently unemployed in a good economy. What the case here...?

Good Economy No Employment Question?

Higher paying jobs tend to be more competitive and have less openings.

Many management positions require work experience.

Good Economy No Employment Question?

loan

Every old spinster and washed up corporate has been has a real estate license. Listing it on a resume is like hanging a loser flag around your neck.

Why are most of the people on line so dumb? and why aren't they at work? like me!?

Why are people on line ridiculously stupid and ignorant? and further more why are they at home, why are theese people not at work? too much time on their hands and a unemployment rate to prove it...huh? thanks alot BUSH...

Why are most of the people on line so dumb? and why aren%26#039;t they at work? like me!?

uhh ur an idiot ppl r doin answers at work like me

Why are most of the people on line so dumb? and why aren%26#039;t they at work? like me!? loan

i%26#039;m ridiculously stupid and ignorant and on the computer, but that doesn%26#039;t mean i%26#039;m not at work.|||Duh.....we are all at work!!

=|||because you are working for me. now pick up the pace or you are fired. are you online with a company computer? bend over...|||too many people online is bush%26#039;s fault? you are one of the people you are talking about|||Unemployment is at a very low 4.6%, yes we should thank President Bush.|||Not all of us are %26#039;Dumb ***%26#039; Americans. Its night here. I don%26#039;t work at night.|||I go on line when I want to. I am retired. I paid for my computer and paid my ISP. I have nothing to apologize for. Mr. Bush has nothing to do with Y! Answers. Your complaints are baseless.|||While the dumb and working like you are on line there are those of us like me that are Geniuses who do not have to work because for me I am retired and if you paid attention to the news the unemployment rate is very low.Thanks to President Bush, low taxes, more money around equal more jobs.Plus the fact you are at work on company time playing around on Yahoo and you come up with this garbage.You are lucky that the boss hasn%26#039;t found out yet and FIRED you so you can join the unemployment line, in case you did not know, you are doing whats called misuse of your position, a firing offense that will NOT get you unemployment if you get fired.|||Hey Mamabear! U got any room in that boat for me?|||I am at work and the only person who considers me dumb is that one guy that women bashes in the women%26#039;s studies section.