Financial Times article on unemployment

"American monumental job losses
By Clive Crook
Published: May 24 2010 03:00
Last updated: May 24 2010 03:00
Unemployment in the US is high not just by its own past standards but by international standards, too, which is doubly strange. Figures also show a startling rise in long-term unemployment, to levels previously associated with Europe's broken labour markets.


In April the number of Americans looking for work for more than six months rose to 6.7m, roughly half of all those unemployed. Such a high proportion is unprecedented: the long-term share has previously reached a quarter at most. Terms for the stickiness of high unemployment such as hysteresis and sclerosis have preoccupied students of Europe's economies. They have not come up so much in discussions of US joblessness, but this may change.

Are these just signs that this recession has been exceptionally severe, or is something even worse going on? Can the US expect the rapid recovery in employment it has experienced coming out of previous recessions? On closer examination, US labour-market exceptionalism has not disappeared - but it is not what it used to be."

Comparing ourselves to Europe is hardly a valid yardstick to measure results by. Europeans don't buy overpriced SUVs and truck-like vehicles - US consumers do. The economy in the US is largely driven by the consumer, producing the product keeps the money "in the family". Importing Chinese made junk and Mexican automobiles is contrary to common sense, since you're paying someone else to do it - and they are NOT buying your products.