Double digits
The last time the nation had a 10.2 percent unemployment rate, "E.T." was the highest-grossing movie at the box office, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in the Brew City World Series, "The A-Team" was one of the top 10 TV shows and the King of Pop was about to release "Thriller." It was 1982 and Ronald Reagan was in the White House and was blamed for the nation's job losses that hit Illinois, which had a 12.2 percent jobless rate, and the rest of the "Rust Belt" hard. Back then, it was the first time since 1940 that unemployment in the U.S. topped the symbolic double-digit mark.
For months, the Obama administration had warned higher unemployment numbers -- 15 million Americans out of work -- were coming. In Lake County, that has translated to a 10 percent jobless rate in September, an all-time high for that month, and 10.5 percent in September for the state. County and state numbers for October will be released later this month and they, too, should be up.
Never mind that the economy grew in the last quarter, that the recession by most economists' accounts is over and that the number of jobs lost in October -- 190,000 -- was less than one-third the number a year ago. Yet, an unemployment rate of 10.2 percent has serious political consequences for the president and his party.
It's still time to keep buckled up. The rough ride isn't over.
Counting those who got so discouraged they quit looking for work and those who want to work full time but have been forced to settle for part time, the national unemployment rate is more like 17.5 percent, the highest in the 15 years that particular record has been kept. During the Reagan administration, double-digit jobless numbers lingered into the summer of 1983.
The nation's economists say the unemployment rate will peak early next year, probably at about 10.5 percent, and then still have subsided only to around 9 percent by Election Day. Congress perks up when they see such figures. The nation's lawmakers this week extended another 14 weeks of unemployment benefits to workers who have exhausted theirs, plus an additional six weeks for workers in states with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent or higher, such as Illinois. The vote on the bill was unanimous in the Senate, nearly so in the House.
Rightly or wrongly, the double-digit unemployment rate of 2009 is happening on President Obama's watch. How his administration reacts will tell us how many Americans will be back working at this time next year, an election year. The clock is ticking.
