Don’t say it to loudly or you’ll spook it away, but an economic recovery may be on the horizon.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment fell to 8.3% and January saw the addition of 243,000 jobs in the U.S.

Unemployment has declined by .8% since August indicating a slow but steady recovery in the job market. Don’t break out the champagne yet because a definitive end to the nation’s financial woes is not clearly in sight.

But if this trend continues, then by election time in November, unemployment could be in the 7% range, the first time since the recession hit.

Of course, that is a big “IF”…

Thanks to The Washington Post!

Times are tough. Folks are suffering. Time for Washington to act, Right?

Nope!

At least that was the answer in the Senate yesterday.

In a move that should surprise no one, the Senate GOP voted unanimously to block President Obama’s jobs bill.

The $447 billion proposal faced its first real test after being touted all over the country by the president himself. But the Republicans weren’t the only ones with “doubts” about the bill.

On Tuesday morning, senior White House officials said this is just the first act in a long-term play. They brushed aside the dissent among Democrats and urged Americans instead to look at the Republicans, unanimously voting against job-creation measures.”

Facing opposition from both parties, the next steps for the legislation remain unclear.

Votes on pieces of the bill could begin later this month, perhaps as early as next week, Senate Democratic aides said. Party leaders said they needed to consult their caucus before they decide on the timing or choose the provisions to be considered separately.”

Is the president running out of time? Or will be looking for a job soon?

Image from the Washington Post

On Thursday night, President Obama gave a much anticipated speech to Congress about his plan to reduce unemployment – The American Jobs Act.  Your trusty USDemocrazy bloggers have rounded up some of the coverage for you.  Watch, read, listen, enjoy!

Don’t have a half hour to watch the President’s Thursday night speech?  How about 2 minutes?  CNN gives you the highlights.

How the American Jobs Act will (or won’t) impact people of color.

The markets were certainly listening – the Dow Jones takes a dip.

Perspectives on Obama’s plan and the “woman-cession.”

Let the rallies begin!  As he promised, Obama presents the plan to the people.

And just in case you have some extra time, check out the full video from Thursday’s speech, enhanced with some super cool graphics from whitehouse.gov.

Image from The Washington Post

One last welcome: President Obama greets bodies of those killed in Afghanistan crash.

Bouncing back! Stocks skyrocket after rough start.

Super senators? Three Democrats headed to new “Super Congress.”

Not hiring: Teen unemployment is at 20%!

And, England is on fire.

Sources like the Boston Globe say that riots started in London and have quickly spread:

Buildings, vehicles, and trash dumps were set on fire, stores burglarized, and police officers pelted with bottles and fireworks in London yesterday, as groups of young people rampaged through neighborhoods across the capital.

The same source says that over 225 people have been arrested, half under 21. They’re fighting with whatever they can get their hands on.

For a detailed chain of events try this BBC Timeline.

So why are people this upset? From what we can tell, people are demanding justice for the family, but are also protesting high unemployment and the lack of government services in low income and diverse areas.

The riots are well into their third night and the London area hopes to regain control.

Thanks to the LA Times.

Welcome to the club!  South Sudan becomes the newest nation.

Bigger isn’t always better.  New unemployment numbers are out…and not looking good.

What do porn, “quickie divorces,” and Islamic law have in common?  Michele Bachmann has the answer.

A Washington Post columnist asks, if Caylee Anthony was black, would we have heard about her case?

And remember OctoMom?  Well, after this interview, we’re sure Ann Curry always will.

Thanks to Wikicommons.

It seems we humans are doomed.

Movies and TV would have you believe that robots will destroy us in a reign of destruction.

We’ve already seen this recently in the computer Watson’s victory on Jeopardy against human champions.Computer brains are better than our brains.

Computers and robots are also regarded as the enemy of the blue collar worker. Why have humans build cars when robots do it faster? Right?

Well, Paul Krugman notes that computers threaten more jobs as

any routine task — a category that includes many white-collar, non-manual jobs — is in the firing line.

What makes this news so bad as Krugman notes is that

It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade.

Over at Free Exchange, R.A., questions the gloom and doom noting that

As far as I know, people currently represent 100% of final demand; machines aren’t yet out there purchasing goods for their own consumption. Without people there is no economy

Of course, being a good dismal scientist, the post goes on to note that unemployment is still an issue but it may be the governments, rather than the robots, fault.

So the good news, robots may not be the enemy (until they start to eat us). The bad news, unemployment is still a real issue no matter its cause.

Thanks to Calculated Risk

Quick question: What’s your job?

It’s a quick question… and a Big question.

Your job takes up a massive portion of your waking hours and supplies you the income to survive.

So… if you don’t have a job… you’ve got a serious problem (and a lot of time) on your hands.

Right now there are millions of Americans without jobs and recent reports suggest this will not change soon.

The blog Calculated Risk notes the average number unemployed has been at

above 400,000 all year after falling sharply during the last few months of 2010.

What comes up must come down, right? Maybe not, some economists fear.

Recently Justin Weidner and John Williams, of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggested that the natural unemployment rate (i.e. long term level) may have increased from the past rate of 5.0% and that

with a 6.7% natural rate, current and fore-casted levels of unemployment imply that significant labor market slack will persist for several years.

Over at Free Exchange, R.A. things that this study is by no means conclusive but it does

suggest that there has been some rise in the long-term structural rate of unemployment.  …the warning in these papers that labour market weakness will persist for some time is not encouraging; the longer workers go without jobs, the less employable they become.

Hey, at least employers don’t discriminate against the unemployed. Wait they do? Well, it can’t get any worse right?

Thanks to Wikicommons.

Grey skies are going to clear up? Unemployment expected to stay high for years.

Tragedy underground. No survivors in New Zealand mine accident after second explosion.

Still angry about tuition. UK student protests continue against increased University costs.

Thanks to Wikicommons

Are You about to become EXTINCT?!?  If you are a member of the Middle Class, we are talking to YOU!

That’s right there are some pretty smart people out there saying the American middle may go the way of the DoDo bird and be found only in museums.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

This is the dark projection Michael Snyder provides via Yahoo! Finance.  The article provides a number of shocking statistics to support this view.

Not only is the middle class being squeezed while they work but their retirements are threatened as well.  Laura Basset of the Huffington Post notes

The percentage of American workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43 percent in 2010, according to a recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Nearly a quarter of the workforce said they have postponed their planned retirement in the past year and a CareerBuilder.com survey reports that 61 percent of workers say they are now living paycheck to paycheck, as compared to 43 percent in 2007.

Such a large issue can’t suddenly appear; why hasn’t the collapse of the middle class been noticed before?  An excellent piece by Edward Luce of the Financial Times answers this noting that

For years, the problem was cushioned and partially hidden by the availability of cheap debt. Middle-class Americans were actively encouraged to withdraw equity from their homes, or leach from their retirement funds, in the confidence that ­property prices and stock markets would permanently defy gravity (a view, among others, promoted by half the world’s Nobel economics prize winners, Spence not included). That cushion is now gone. Easy money has turned into heavy debt.

There is truth in this statement but the collapse of the American middle class has been noted before.  It was so long ago we forgot.

The great American middle class, the provocateurs contend, is no longer so great. It is shrinking steadily, goes the theory, and shedding its members into the economic extremes of wealth and poverty.

This is part of the opening paragraph from a Times article written in 1986.  Fears of a disappearing middle class are nothing new.

If this problem has been seen as a threat for so long is it really a problem than?  The middle class survived the 1980s can’t they survive the 2000s?  That will have to be seen but this recession has far surpassed its post War predecessors.

Thanks to Democracy in America

As reported by the Economist’s Democracy in America the duration of unemployment has increased to levels previous unseen.

This would make one believe things are worst than before.  However, the US middle class has over come in the past so perhaps they can continue to soldier on.

Frankly, we at US Democrazy have no idea.  What could really help us, and you, understand the state of today’s middle class would be for our readers to report what the US  (or other countries) economies are like in their area.  So stop just reading and start reporting; we’re glad to listen for a while.