September unemployment is 9.8 percent

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by firstdown

So at what point do we declare that the stimulas bill didn't work or do we just keep waiting until things to turn around to declare its was a sucess?

Well to make a declaration like that you have to do a lot more digging than just looking at September's 9.8% and summarily passing judgment.

You have to analyze jobs to ascertain:

- How many people would be unemployed if the stimulus wasn't passed? Would it be more than 9.8%?

- How many people have adjusted their standard of living? For example, my wife became a stay at home mom last month. She's not looking for another job, but she doesn't want one either.

- How many jobs have been created by stimulus funds to date? How many are planned?

- How many jobs have been created/lost thanks to economic conditions. These creations/losses would happen regardless of stimulus.

It's a complicated exercise to accurately determine whether stimulus worked. Don't be a headline grabber when it comes to this stuff, focusing on the headlines leads to thoughtless debate and a lack of critical thinking.