Reader comments
Utah jobless rate in April stayed at 5.2%

This can't be right.The "Stimulus bill" was suppossed to correct this.Well, that's what the Administration said,right?

Statistical nonsense. This doesn't measure anyone not claiming unemployment insurance. It doesn't measure the 30-40% unemployment among Hispanics that do mostly construction and personal service labor. If the government had economists instead of bureaucrats they would target a random sample of workers and track their full and part-time employment. We need to redo the way we collect these numbers so we can measure performance in the economy.

So how do you get a random sample of people who don't want to respond. The only way you can get the numbers is from those that report it. It is a measurement based on consistent data for years and years. It is as accurate as possible. 5.2 is quite a bit better than 10.2 like Las Vegas.

The fact of the matter is that they probably know what the real numbers are. The current methodology eliminates certain categories to make things seem less dire than they actually are. Take a look at Shadow Government Statistics and you'll get a better idea of how bad things really are. Using pre-1980 methods, our national unemployment rate is closer to 20%, rather than the 8 or 9% they tell us now.

The real stats are bad and will get worse. This government is prolonging the pain.

The numbers are very misleading. It is only the number of people filing for benefits. How many self-employed are in Utah in the construction industry and now have no work and do not get counted as unemployed because they get no benefits because they were self employed? In the last year I would say 50% of my neighbors in a middle class suburb are now underemployed, working out of state, or unemployed. The other fact is ther are no jobs, even with a college degree (unless you are lucky enough to get one of the 40 or so openings in nursing school each year and not sit on a wait list) , you can't find a job in Utah. Employers won't even take truck drivers from Utah. It is sad to the gap between the wealthy and poor widen and the middle class disappear in Utah.

Instead of looking at unemployment there should be another statistic where the real meat is at. Importing local jobs to other nations like China, India, Phillipines, and so on.

Even with credit crunched you still got money that's available but with banks and other private entities holding that money back which is also one cause of unemployment.

If we get rid of the middle class in Utah and nationwide we also eliminate the most crucial factor in our American survival. Those are our soldiers. Soldiers created the middle class, borne from the middle class, survive in the middle class, middle class sustains our current growth.