Not A Reason To Celebrate Yet

Unemployment drops to 9.4% in December, but is that good news? Not really. First, 9.4% is still a disastrously high rate. Second, the reported figure is likely the U1, the most "forgiving" number. The U6 rate, which includes underemployed and part-time as well as the unemployed, is still at 16.7%, indicating that one out of ever 12 Americans who can work is out of work, or is not making enough to get by. California's numbers are worse; 12.4% of Californians were unemployed as of September 21, 2010. That number didn't change in November 2010.

Moreover, only 103,000 jobs were added in December 2010, indicating that increasing numbers of people are simply not being counted in official employment statistics. That happens when one becomes homeless; the government stops seeing you and stops counting you. You become less of a person. In that respect, our current recession has been a severely dehumanizing one. People who are OK will still feel afraid of losing their jobs, and will catch a whiff of this dehumanization, and they will vote accordingly.

Make no mistake - the number one job for Democrats over the next two years is bringing jobs back, even in the face of Republican opposition (and they will oppose job creation if Democrats push for it!). No one wants to vote for the party in power if they feel dehumanized by the economy. And Democrats will necessarily be seen as the party in power since they control the Senate and Presidency. A word to the wise.