Juggling Priorities

The hard reality is that 10.0% unemployment rate figure simply isn't counting the millions of Americans who have simply left the work force altogether, and at the state level, the picture is devastating.

In another nationwide trend, long-suffering states like California and Michigan saw their jobless rates stabilize even as they continued to bleed jobs. That's because thousands of frustrated workers gave up hunting for work and dropped out of the labor force, which means they aren't included in the unemployment rate.

California lost 38,800 jobs. But its unemployment rate was unchanged at 12.4 percent, the fifth-highest in the nation. That's because 107,000 people, or 0.6 percent of the state's workforce, gave up and stopped job-hunting.

Michigan shed 15,700 jobs, but 31,000 people left the labor force. That caused the state's jobless rate to fall slightly, to 14.6 percent from 14.7 percent. Michigan has the nation's highest unemployment rate.

Nationally, more than 600,000 people left the labor force in December, according to government data. The large exodus from the labor force indicates that "unemployment is a lot worse than the numbers suggest," Koropeckyj said.

The latest U-6 estimate for the country is 17.3%, but even that doesn't count all the people that have simply left the labor force. Millions of Americans, perhaps tens of millions, have simply given up looking for jobs at all.  The government estimates are far too low.  We're talking about a real unemployment rate in this country of upwards of 20%.  Some states are at 25% or higher,  and individual counties are topping 30% or more.

It's bad, folks.  If you're wondering why Americans are scared and angry at Obama, it's because the GOP long ago mastered playing the fear card.  It's a testament to just how bad the times are, just how effective the GOP spin masters have been, and just how wholly unprepared Obama and the Democrats were for this mess that Bush left.

The country's about to hand the whole thing back over to the Republicans as a result.  Six months ago the Dems were actually looking like they could pick up seats in 2010.  Of course, six months ago, the Dems were looking like they were going to pass health care reform, too.