future feelings…

Posted on Thursday 7 May 2009

April Unemployment numbers are due out tomorrow. This is where we left off:

Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1999 4.3 4.4 4.2 4.3 4.2 4.3 4.3 4.2 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.0
2000 4.0 4.1 4.0 3.8 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.1 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9
2001 4.2 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.3 4.5 4.6 4.9 5.0 5.3 5.5 5.7
2002 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.9 5.8 5.8 5.8 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.9 6.0
2003 5.8 5.9 5.9 6.0 6.1 6.3 6.2 6.1 6.1 6.0 5.8 5.7
2004 5.7 5.6 5.8 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.4 5.4
2005 5.2 5.4 5.2 5.2 5.1 5.1 5.0 4.9 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.8
2006 4.7 4.8 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4
2007 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.8 4.7 4.9
2008 4.9 4.8 5.1 5.0 5.5 5.6 5.8 6.2 6.2 6.6 6.8 7.2
2009 7.6 8.1 8.5                  

All my life, I’ve sort of snickered when the Stock Market rises or falls and they say it had to do with some initialed number that just came out. Now, I’m into it. BLS, Unemployment, CPI, DOW. It’s like taking your temperature to see if you feel bad. So, tomorrow, I’ll look up the April unemployment figures and I’ll feel something. Just for kicks, I’m going to predict what I’ll feel:

  • under 8.6: Won’t happen, but if it does, I’ll feel great.
  • 8.6-8.8: The rate it’s rising is already slowing. Hope it continues.
  • 8.9-9.0: Another month to worry about the May figures…
  • over 9.0: We are not close to out of the woods yet…

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