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How Redundancy Insurance Can Help You Cope With the Risk of Unemployment

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Editor’s Note:

In the U.K. unemployment insurance is called redundancy insurance and it is available from private insurers. In the U.S. although there is State Unemployment Insurance it is difficult if not impossible to find supplemental (private) unemployment insurance although John Hartline, an insurance industry veteran, tried to get insurance companies to provide it, as reported in this article from the N.Y. Times. ~Tim McMahon, editor

 

Redundancy Insurance :

As the news tells us on an almost daily basis, the employment market is more fragile now than it has been for a long time. The current economic crisis sees no signs of abating and more companies are going into administration than we have ever known before which has resulted in over 2.51 million currently being unemployed in the UK (source:office for national statistics).

During such troubled times, one of the primary concerns that all of us have is how we would support ourselves and our dependents should the next company in crisis be ours.

This risk applies to small businesses and large corporations alike and the fear of loosing financial security for ourselves and our families is going nowhere.

The Introduction of Redundancy Insurance

Redundancy InsuranceThankfully, there is a solution to this worry that ensures you can meet your bills and maintain your current standard of living should you be made unemployed through no fault of your own.

Redundancy cover has been created in direct response to the uncertainty in the employment market specifically to protect the income levels of individuals who are [Read more…] about How Redundancy Insurance Can Help You Cope With the Risk of Unemployment

The Impact of Unemployment on Housing

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Whether you believe the accuracy of the 7.8% unemployment rate announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this fall or that the government is manipulating the unemployment numbers to affect the presidential election, one thing is certain: the government isn’t funding potential home buyers’ lack of ambition when it comes to a milestone investment such as financing a home. Unemployment rates are only a piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding why some U.S. families may be redistributing funds they had previously set aside for a home sweet home. The bigger picture suggests that a reduced sense of urgency, types of employment, and the unique circumstances of the “baby boom” generation will also keep the real estate market stagnant at least into the next few years.

Unemployment Impacts Housing

Unemployment impacts housingPurchasing a home has long been a big financial undertaking. For many, the thought of a looming home loan becoming more and more swollen with interest over the next 20-30 years isn’t exactly the most alluring aspect of having your own hearth to decorate each holiday. In short, it’s a decision you can drag your feet to make; combine that with the fact that the market is currently tipped in favor of buyers who have more time and reduced pressure to find a quality, affordable home without fear of their options disappearing. In this buyer’s market, families looking for a new home know they have the luxury of more and better options when it comes to financing and overall home prices and they’re taking their time. According to CNN Money, home prices are down on a national average of 34% (although home prices have increased five months in a row as of October 2012) although they’re predicted to increase in the coming years, the increase won’t be substantial enough to spur would-be homeowners into a buying frenzy. [Read more…] about The Impact of Unemployment on Housing

Unemployment, Part-time Workers and Obamacare

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When the most recent unemployment data was released just a couple of days after the second Presidential debate, there was some speculation that the numbers were “rigged” or “fudged”. We’ve been saying for a long time that even though they should be two sides of the same coin, the “Employment” numbers don’t track with the “Unemployment” numbers.

See: Employment vs. UnEmployment.

Basically, what the comparison chart shows is that unemployment is falling faster than employment is rising. Historically, in a recovery employment rises faster than unemployment falls.

But this time somehow “magically” unemployment is falling faster than employment is rising. How can that be?

Discouraged Workers are not the Answer

Unemployment- Part-time workerSome possible explanations up until this point were that people had given up looking for work (became “discouraged workers”) and so they were no longer counted as unemployed under the standard U-3 definition. This would of course make the U-3 number look better but wouldn’t indicate an improving economy. However logical this possibility sounds, the data does not hold up.   If we look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers for Unemployed persons by duration of unemployment we can see that the number of people unemployed for more than 27 weeks in September 2011 was 6,217,000 but in September 2012 that number had fallen to 4,835,000 so the long term unemployed had fallen considerably.

In the table below we see the number of “discouraged workers”  in thousands according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Once again we see [Read more…] about Unemployment, Part-time Workers and Obamacare

Was Jack Welch Right on Twitter? Are Unemployment Numbers “Unbelievable”?

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Jack Welch on Twitter: Unbelievable Jobs Numbers

Unemployment Numbers “Surprisingly Good”-

On Friday, October 5th, just two days after the first Presidential debate the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the unemployment data for September, which were “surprisingly good”. The experts were not expecting such a large drop. The Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.3% in July and had fallen to 8.1% in August and then the unemployment numbers for September came in at a shocking 7.8%.

Upon hearing these numbers, Jack Welch sent a Tweet from his Twitter account that has enraged Democrats. He said,

Jack Welch

  • @jack_welch
    Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.

Jack Welch has an amazing resume,  the former CEO of General Electric, a best-selling author, a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the founder of the Jack Welch Management Institute, etc.

Media Pounces on Jack Welch for Twitter Comments

But of course, that didn’t stop the Media from pouncing all over him. Huffington Post called his Tweet “Demented” and of course, the White House dismissed him as “ludicrous”.

“That’s a ludicrous comment. No serious person believes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics manipulates its statistics,” said Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

I don’t know where Mr. Krueger has been over the last 20 years, but John Williams of Shadowstats.com has made quite a name for himself disbelieving BLS numbers for some time now. And we have published several articles about how the Unemployment numbers don’t match up with the Employment numbers. See: Employment vs. Unemployment and Is the Government Fudging Unemployment Numbers?  We published both of these articles long before the Presidential debate and Jack Welch’s Tweet.

As a matter of fact, James Dale Davidson founder of the National Taxpayers Union and author of Blood in the Streets, The Sovereign Individual, and most recently Brazil Is the New America: How Brazil Offers Upward Mobility in a Collapsing World wrote many years ago that he believed that Bill Clinton was fudging BLS numbers. So accusations of BLS fudging are nothing new.

As a matter of fact, it might be [Read more…] about Was Jack Welch Right on Twitter? Are Unemployment Numbers “Unbelievable”?

What is Full Employment?

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In the world of employment data, unemployment statistics get a lot of attention. They have a huge impact on the economy as a whole and they also affect several other areas. Although a certain percentage of unemployment is the norm in every economy in the world, economic theory has a concept known as full employment. What exactly is full employment and why is it significant to economists?

Full Employment= Job Eutopia

Full employment is a theoretical scenario that occurs when the entire labor force is being used in the most efficient way possible. All of the skilled labor has a job in the field that they want to be in and all of the unskilled labor has a satisfactory job as well. It is possible for an economy to have full employment, although it’s not very easy to pull off.

See Labor Immobility and the Labor Participation Rate for some limiting factors in the pursuit of full employment.

Frictional Unemployment

Although the term “full employment” sounds like everyone is working, that isn’t necessarily the case. Even during times of full employment, there are still some workers who are not working. Most of these people are considered to be in frictional unemployment. What exactly is frictional unemployment? Frictional unemployment is a term that is used to describe those who are in between jobs, but are still in the workplace. For example, if you are working in a job, and you determine that you don’t like your employer, you might decide to quit and look for a new job. During the time period where you are looking for new employment, you are considered to be in [Read more…] about What is Full Employment?

Employment vs. Unemployment

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Employment – Unemployment

Employment vs. unemployment… You would think that they are two sides of the same coin. But when it comes to government stats they may not be.

The government uses two entirely different surveys to calculate Employment and Unemployment and as we will see since 2010 they have started to paint entirely different pictures. A few days ago we looked at how an independent organization (Gallup poles) is now tracking unemployment rates and how the government numbers appear to be understating the level of unemployment. Today we will look at the government’s own numbers and how they don’t even agree with each other… giving more evidence that the government is slanting the data. [Read more…] about Employment vs. Unemployment

How U.S. Unemployment Rates Compare to other OECD Countries

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Unemployment rates in the U.S. in January were 8.3%
See: Unemployment Rate Chart
Which is very similar to the average Unemployment rate in other OECD countries. The OECD area average unemployment rate was 8.2% in January 2012, having remained basically unchanged throughout 2011. The Euro area was significantly higher at 10.7% reaching a record high since the start of the global financial crisis. It has continued to move higher since June 2011 while the U.S. has decreased from 9.1% to 8.3% during the same period.

Austria remains lower than the rest of the Euro area (and the U.S.) with an unemployment rate of 4.0%, Luxembourg has a rate of 5.1% and Germany has 5.8% compared to other Euro area countries like the Slovak Republic at 13.3%,  Slovenia 8.2% and Finland 7.5%. The dubious honor of the highest unemployment rate in the OECD goes to Spain with an unemployment rate of 23.3%.

Among non-European OECD countries, the unemployment rate fell slightly in Australia (to 5.1%), Mexico (to 4.8%) while it increased slightly in Japan (to 4.6%) and Korea (to 3.2%).

New data for February 2012 show that the unemployment rate for the United States was stable at a seasonally adjusted 8.3% (following five consecutive monthly declines) while it fell by 0.2 percentage point in Canada (to 7.4%).

OECD Unemployment January 2012

Unadjusted U-3 unemployment in the U.S. in February was 8.7%
See: U-6 Unemployment Rate for information on the broader unemployment rate calculation.

 

The Difference a Degree Makes in Unemployment Levels

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The Difference a College Degree Makes

We’re always told by our parents that we need a good education in order to get a good job. And that we will make more money if we have a good education. But these days we hear of unemployed college graduates camping out in New York city and protesting Wall Street because they can’t find jobs. So let’s take a look at the numbers and compare the unemployment rate based on eduation level.  In the following chart we will look at four educational levels. The first level are those people with less than a High School education. The second level are those with a High School diploma. The third level are those with some college education or an associates degree. And finally those with a Four Year College Degree.

College Degree

As we can see from the chart above, obviously the unemployment rate is the highest for those with the least education… as we would expect. Logically if you were an employer you would lay off the least educated employees first because they are more readily replaceable. We can even tell by the numbers the actual difference a high school education makes. The average unemployment rate for the period from 1992 through October 2011 for High School graduates was 5.5% while the average for those who didn’t graduate from High School was 9.2%. So simply by getting a High School education, you decreased your odds of being unemployed drastically with the actual difference being 3.7%.  But if you look at the chart you will see that a High School education was even more valuable than that. The real benefit of being able to get a job is when jobs are scarce, so even though the average difference was 3.7% during bad times, i.e. when the overall unemployment rate is higher the difference climbs even more.

First, let’s look at the difference just a high school education makes. [Read more…] about The Difference a Degree Makes in Unemployment Levels

OECD Unemployment Rate Hovering at 8.2% in July

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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its report on unemployment in OECD countries today.

The unemployment rate for the entire OECD area was  unchanged for the fifth consecutive month at 8.2% in July 2011. The Euro area unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0% for the second consecutive month and has hovered around this level since December 2010.

Between June and July unemployment rates for OECD countries displayed very little movement. The single highest rise was for Luxembourg (up 0.3 percentage points to 4.6%) while the greatest fall was in Mexico (down 0.5 percentage points at 5.3%). New August 2011 data for the United States (unchanged at 9.1%) and Canada (up by 0.1 percentage point to 7.3%) confirm this current picture of broad stability in unemployment rates.

Countries where high unemployment rates continue to persist include Ireland (14.5%), Portugal (12.3%), the Slovak Republic (13.4%) and Spain (21.2%).

Around 44.5 million people were unemployed across the OECD area in July 2011, down 2.0 million from July 2010 but still 11.4 million higher than in July 2008.

OECD Unemployment July

 

OECD Unemployment Rates, s.a.

Percentage of labour force

2008 2009 2010 2010 2011 2011
Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
OECD – Total 6.1 8.4 8.6 8.6 8.5 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.2
Major Seven 5.9 8.1 8.2 8.1 8.1 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.7 7.8 7.8
European Union 7.1 9 9.7 9.6 9.6 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.4 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.5
Euro area 7.7 9.6 10.1 10.1 10.1 10 10 10 10 9.9 10 10 10
Australia 4.2 5.6 5.2 5.2 5.2 5 4.9 5 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.9 5.1
Austria 3.8 4.8 4.4 4.4 4.2 4.4 4.1 4.5 4.3 4.1 4.2 3.9 3.7
Belgium 7 7.9 8.3 8.3 7.9 7.2 7.3 7.1 7.1 7.2 7.4 7.4 7.5
Canada(1) 6.1 8.3 8 8 7.7 7.7 7.5 7.8 7.7 7.6 7.4 7.4 7.2
Chile 7.8 10.8 8.2 8 7.1 7.3 7.2 7.3 7 7.2 7.2 7.5
Czech Republic 4.4 6.7 7.3 7.1 7.1 6.9 6.5 6.9 6.7 6.6 6.5 6.5 6.4
Denmark 3.4 6.1 7.4 7.4 7.7 7.6 7.3 7.6 7.6 7.3 7.4 7.3 7.1
Estonia 5.6 13.8 16.8 16.1 14.5 13.6 12.8 13.6 13.6 12.8 12.8 12.8
Finland 6.4 8.2 8.4 8.3 8.1 8 7.9 8 8 7.9 7.9 7.9 7.9
France 7.8 9.5 9.8 9.8 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.8 9.9
Germany 7.6 7.7 7.1 6.9 6.6 6.4 6.2 6.4 6.3 6.2 6.2 6.1 6.1
Greece 7.7 9.5 12.6 13 14.1 15 15 15
Hungary 7.8 10 11.2 11.1 11 11 10.1 10.9 10.6 10.3 10 9.9 9.7
Iceland 3 7.2 7.5 7.8 8.5 7.4 6.7
Ireland 6.4 11.8 13.7 13.8 14.3 14.2 14.2 14.2 14.1 14.1 14.1 14.3 14.5
Israel(3) 6.1 7.5 6.7 6.6 6.5 6 5.5
Italy 6.8 7.8 8.4 8.3 8.3 8.1 8 8.1 8.1 8 8.1 8 8
Japan 4 5.1 5.1 5 5 4.7 4.6 4.6 4.6 4.7 4.5 4.6 4.7
Korea 3.2 3.6 3.7 3.6 3.4 3.9 3.4 4 4 3.6 3.3 3.3 3.3
Luxembourg 4.9 5.1 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.3 4.3 4.2 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.6
Mexico 4 5.5 5.4 5.2 5.4 5.1 5.5 5.2 5 5.2 5.5 5.8 5.3
Netherlands 3.1 3.7 4.5 4.5 4.4 4.3 4.2 4.3 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.1 4.3
New Zealand 4.2 6.1 6.5 6.4 6.7 6.5 6.5
Norway 2.5 3.1 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.2 3.3 3.2 3.2 3.4 3.3 3.3
Poland 7.2 8.2 9.6 9.5 9.6 9.4 9.5 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.4
Portugal 8.5 10.6 12 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.6 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.6 12.5 12.3
Slovak Republic 9.5 12 14.4 14.3 14 13.5 13.4 13.5 13.4 13.4 13.4 13.4 13.4
Slovenia 4.4 5.9 7.3 7.3 7.8 8.1 8.3 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.3 8.4 8.4
Spain 11.4 18 20.1 20.5 20.5 20.6 20.8 20.6 20.7 20.7 20.8 21 21.2
Sweden 6.2 8.3 8.4 8.3 7.9 7.7 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.4 7.7 7.4 7.4
Switzerland 3.2 4.1 4.2 4.5 3.9 3.9
Turkey 9.7 12.5 10.6 10.5 9.9 9.3 9.2 9.1 9.1 9.3
United Kingdom 5.6 7.6 7.8 7.7 7.8 7.7 7.7 7.6 7.7 7.8
United States (2) 5.8 9.3 9.6 9.6 9.6 8.9 9.1 8.9 8.8 9 9.1 9.2 9.1

Teen Employment Rate Plunges

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Only 1 in 4 Teens is Employed

Teenage employment rates have averaged around 45% since the 1950’s but since 2000 the teenage employment rate has plummeted. Currently less than 25% of teenagers can find a job. But don’t worry the government has a plan to create 50,000 new jobs…

So what is this magic plan you might ask?

Teen Employment Rate Plummets

Simple [Read more…] about Teen Employment Rate Plunges