True unemployment jumps to 16.8% - job creation and consumer spending both down 30%

The Labor Department reports the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent in August, from 9.4 percent in July.

According to the Washington Post, the expanded unemployment rate -- a broader measure of joblessness that includes people who have given up looking for a job out of frustration and who are working part time but want a full-time job, rose from 16.3 percent to 16.8 percent.

The tally now stands at 6.9 million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. Since President Obama signed his boondoggle stimulus bill into law, nearly 2.5 million people have lost their jobs.

Gallup reports both job creation and consumer spending are down more than 30% from a year ago:

Right now, the job market apparently continues to deteriorate and the real unemployment rate continues to increase, regardless of what the Labor Department reports on Friday morning.

[. . .]

It may be that the current inventory- and "clunker"-driven economic upturn will be a "jobless" recovery. It is possible that government and business spending alone can drive economic improvement for a short period of time. However, without significant job creation, it is hard to see how consumer spending will increase; how many retailers will survive after the Christmas holidays; and how the economic recovery will be maintained into early 2010.

It's time to reconsider all the recent happy talk about the economy.