Thursday, April 09, 2009

Public Service Math

Doing the math so you don't have to!

People tend to get confused by big numbers. To many people ten grand is a lot of money and ten million is also a lot of money. So let's convert some numbers into something easier to grasp.
New Jobless Claims Drop; Ongoing Total At Record : NPR

The 5.84 million continuing claims lag the initial claims data by a week and the number doesn't include 1.54 million Americans that received benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program approved by Congress last year. That adds 20 to 33 weeks of benefits on top of the typical 26 weeks provided by states.
That's a total of 7.38 million Americans collecting unemployment. This does not account for those who are jobless without unemployment benefits.

If you combined the greater metropolitan populations including suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Kansas City on both sides of the river, the Portland/Vancouver region, and added in Freeborn County in Minnesota, all of the places I have claimed residence in, you would fall just shy of 7.38 million. Thinking about everyone in all of those places being on unemployment sounds a bit scary.

Or you could consider the entire populations of Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Dakota drawing unemployment. Gives you a whole different perspective.

3 comments:

X said...

Or you could consider the entire populations of Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Dakota drawing unemployment. Gives you a whole different perspective.

They aren't already?

List with Laszlo said...

These are serious numbers. I only hope when jobs do come back they're real jobs you can feed a family on not minimum wage fast food jobs.

Unknown said...

X, I was being kind and not coming right out and saying it.