Weather Report: The Economy–Jobs. Gardening Addendum, Next Week
The Economy–Jobs: For a realistic picture of unemployment we turn this week to Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis (http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) post 0f 3/27/09:
“Double-digit unemployment rates are un-American.”
“A total of seven states have passed the 10% unemployment rate as the Jobless Slump Spreads.
The number of U.S. states with a jobless rate exceeding 10 percent almost doubled on February as the worst employment slump in the postwar era spread.”
Mish notes in this post that the expectation is for joblessness to increase beyond the “official” 8.1% currently admitted to by the government and that this is the 14th straight month of increases in unemployment.
But here’s the “ringer”: “…if you start counting all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off the unemployment rolls because their unemployment benefits ran out, etc., you get a closer picture of what the unemployment rate is.”
It’s not the reported 8.1% (U3), but more nearly approximates 14.8% (U6).
And here’s the coup degrace: “The pattern is pretty unmistakable. In one year the official unemployment rate rose from 4,8 to 8.1 (3.3) while U6 rose from 9.0 to 14.8 (5.8).
Assuming U3 hits 10%, U6 is likely to be approaching 20%.”
“THESE ARE DEPRESSION LEVEL STATISTICS.” (caps ours)
Gardening Addendum: Adding to Prudent Home’s gardening post of 3/28/09 is this comment from the “Dollars from dirt: Economy spurs home garden boom” article (yahoo.com) by Gillian Flaccus (3/15/09) we commented on; “Industry surveys show double digit growth in the number of home gardeners this year and mail-order companies report such a tremendous demand that some have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and peppers.”
“We’re selling out,” said George Ball, CEO of Burpee Seeds, the largest mail-order seed company on the U.S. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Prudent Home’s contacts at our local “country” hardware store shows the same situation; they’re unable to meet their full demand for seeds.
In speaking with friends and family, we’ve recommended buying enough seeds for two full gardens: one for this year (summer & winter) and one for next.
Food prices are officially predicted to rise by 6-9% this year (we believe that they may go higher) and, along with growing unemployment and possible rising fuel prices, demand for vegetable garden seeds is unlikely to do anything but rise.
Next Week: We hope touch base again on family food storage.
Until next week then, keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers changing fast.
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