1 + 1 + 1 = 5.2% unemployment

What do you get if you add:

A collapse in manufacturing...



plus a collapse in construction...



plus a collapse in services?



Answer?

A large rise in the unemployment rate.

Nearly 54,000 Australians lost their full-time jobs last month, according to official labour force figures released today, prompting economists to predict a large interest rate cut next month.

The grim data was worse-than-expected, revealing that the unemployment rate climbed to 5.2 percent in February.

Economists are now predicting that the jobless rate could reach 9 percent by the end of 2010.

“The consensus is moving towards a higher unemployment rate,” said Besa Deda, chief economist at St George Bank.

She added that the surprise jump in the number of unemployed people could force the Reserve Bank of Australia to slash interest rates again when it meets next month.

“Today’s unemployment figures, combined with the recent slowing in economic growth, are increasing the pressure on the Reserve Bank to cut rates in April,” she told ninemsn.

Slashing the cash rate by 50 basis points from 3.25 percent to 2.75 percentwould drag interest rates to a new low - under the record low of 2.89 percent in January 1960.

Looking at those market contraction figures why would anyone think that pissing tens of billions of dollars up against the wall on ridiculous so-called stimulus projects that create no sustainable jobs at all is going to either fix the mess we're in or take the blunt edges off it, as I heard one commentator say?

The fan is taking out insurance at being hit by a lot of sh*t in the very near future.

I understand that the premium is extremely high.

(Nothing Follows)