Unemployment USA

106.4+ Million U.S. Adults Do Not Have A Job Right Now

Inflation-Battered Americans Raiding 401k's To Pay Mortgages And Rent

[link to www.zerohedge.com (secure)]


n the latest sign of an economy edging deeper into troubled waters, more Americans are raiding their 401(k) retirement accounts to cover basic living costs, according to data released by Fidelity Investments on Monday.

"Americans outside the wealthiest quintile have run out of extra savings generated early in the pandemic and now have less cash on hand than they did when the pandemic began," notes Bloomberg's Alexandre Tanzi, citing Fed data.

According to Fidelity, 2.3% took a hardship withdrawal in the third quarter, up significantly from the 1.8% rate observed in the same quarter of 2022. The top two reasons given for the third-quarter hardship withdrawals: avoiding foreclosure/eviction, and medical expenses.

Withdrawals aren't the only way to crack the 401(k) piggy bank. Fidelity says 2.8% took loans from their retirement balances, up from 2.4% last year. Even more concerning: Fully 17.6% of workers now have an outstanding loan against their 401(k).

Withdrawals and loans aren't just a sign of an increasingly troubled economy -- since they sap retirement savings, they also portend a weaker financial future for the growing number of individuals using those features.

Look for the hardship withdrawal rate to keep increasing, and not just for economic reasons: Starting in 2024, a new rule will allow withdrawals of up to $1,000 for emergencies without being subject to the 10% under-59 1/2 penalty. Unlike hardship withdrawals today, participants will be allowed to repay these sub-$1,000 withdrawals back into their accounts over three years. With empathetic intentions, Congress may instead be enabling financially destructive behavior.

[link to theeconomiccollapseblog.com (secure)]

PUBLISHED TODAY 11/20/2023

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19 months in a row! The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 19 months in a row. When something happens for 19 consecutive months, that is definitely a trend. The economy is clearly in big trouble, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day. But the mainstream media continues to insist that the economy is doing just great. They tell us that inflation is low, but if it was still measured the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be well into double digit territory. And they tell us that the unemployment rate is low, but if honest numbers were being used the official rate of unemployment would be about 25 percent right now. There are highly qualified people that can’t even get an interview even though they are sending out hundreds and hundreds of resumes. What are they doing wrong?

Of course the truth is that they aren’t doing anything wrong. The employment market is far tighter than we are being led to believe, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

When a working age American is not working, the government puts that individual into one of two categories.

Right now, there are only 6.5 million U.S. adults that are officially considered to be “unemployed”.

But another 99.9 million U.S. adults are considered to be “not in the labor force”. So they don’t count as being “unemployed”.

When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of 106.4 million U.S. adults that do not have a job right now.

At no point during the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009 did that number even reach 90 million.

So don’t let anyone convince you that unemployment is low.

The elite are trying to do their best to convince us that everything is just fine, but meanwhile the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 19 months in a row…

Of the many pathologies which afflict the modern Western world, one of the most pernicious is the soullessness of Western economic life.  The essence of modernity, from an economic point of view, is to work for a repetitive eight hours a day so we can then go home and sit in front of a television for eight more, or else go out to the mall and buy useless junk that we don’t really need.  Many in our societies recognise this problem, but feel powerless to do anything about  it.  We feel locked in, chained to a system which maximises “economic growth” and minimises our humanity. We have no choice but to feed the relentless machine of “progress” by offering ourselves as sacrifices to the great god Mammon.

Modern Western man finds himself in the grip of monergocapitalism – the inexorable, undivided will of the economic imperative.  Many may be familiar with the Calvinistic theological position of monergism, which essentially posits that God will work through His Holy Spirit to bring about the regeneration of individuals whom He chooses, regardless of their actual cooperation with Him.  The term comes from the Greek mono (“one, single”) + ergon (“to work”).  Essentially, God’s action AND will alone (as it is often applied) are involved in the theological process of salvation.  By analogy, economic monergocapitalism follows the same line – the only acts and will that matter are those of the capitalist imperative, the “invisible hand” that drives all transactions, all goals, all desires, all purposes.  All economic life is ever more centralised, ever more monopolistic, ever more fitted into the same mold.  To attempt to hinder in any way the progress of this economic imperative is to be a regressive, to be a heretic and a reprobate.  Everything must be subsumed under the economic will, even the very essence of human life itself.  We in the West have indeed reached the point where the human body itself, even that of the unborn child, is subject to dismantlement and sale to the highest bidder.  Likewise with the human soul, captured by the vapid entertainments and propaganda of a society which enslaves the mind to the plasma screen TV.

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