Recent unemployment levels in the Chicago have generally continued to follow the national average. With the recent announcement that the national unemployment rate had slightly declined to 9.1% it seemed like good news. That is until one takes into account a different sobering statistic: there are 25 million Americans who are unemployed, have given up looking for work, or are working part time (yet they would rather have a full-time job). Therefore the so-called "under-employment" rate is 16.1%.
In summary, the sobering and scary fact is that fewer Americans have jobs. In 28 years, the percentage of the population that has a job fell has never been lower than now, 58.1%.
Why has it fallen so low? Because millions of Americans have given up looking for work and then they give up looking for work, they are not included in the unemployment rate.
Put in other numerical terms: 13.9 million people are unemployed but that is still higher than the 7.6 million who were unemployed when the recession began.
The closer we get the father away it seems we are from the elusive greener pastures. If the employment picture is sending these mixed signals, imagine what the housing market signals are going to look like?
Michael Hobbs, President, PahRoo Appraisal & Consultancy
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