photo: solidstate via Flickr

Okay, since the right wing has been trying to spread the image of those out of jobs as choosing to be unemployed, I led off with that mantra.  Of course, anyone who hasn’t been picked up and has been looking for quite some time may have another entirely different take on the matter.  But as those of us who have looked for jobs and not been successful become ever more unemployable, we drop out of the realm of those considered a positive influence, don’t we?

Today’s jobs figures show little change in the number who found a job in November, but a rise in the rate of those of us who are unemployed.

The unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent in November, and nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (+39,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Temporary help services and health care continued to add jobs over the month, while employment fell in retail trade. Employment in most major industries changed little in November.

Household Survey Data

The number of unemployed persons was 15.1 million in November. The unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent; it was 9.6 percent in each of the prior 3 months. (See table A-1.)

(snip)

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 390,000 to 9.5 million in November. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 6.3 million and accounted for 41.9 percent of the unemployed. (See tables A-11 and A-12.)

…Among the marginally attached, there were 1.3 million discouraged workers in November, an increase of 421,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.

This will change in December because seasonal sales jobs will increase and some will be kept on after
the selling season now upon us. The financial reporters will play down that fact, because it doesn’t
help their talking points about how by buying lots of stuff we the consumer are fighting unemployment.

There will be increasing numbers of frustrated workers, and somehow employers continue to see profits as detached entirely from disposable income.  Until that changes, prospects for the economy continue to be dismal.