Spend! Spend! Spend!

[BoSoxGal]

Always keep a good book in the car, I say. And a warm blanket. Lessons from living in cold climates.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Blanket, sweatpants, thermal undies (tops, bottoms and socks), two pairs of gloves, boots, wool hat, flannel shirt, extra coat, water, snack, a shovel (folding style) and a bag of kitty litter (to help with traction) are put in my car at the first sign of a snowstorm and stay there throughout the winter. I spent a year in Buffalo and learned. All of which fit (minus the kitty litter) in a good sized gym bag so you can transfer from car to car.

Glad you're ok Econoline.

[Lord Jim]

I suppose this would be a bad time to point out that tomorrow it's supposed to hit 72 here....

Which means:



And....



Maybe we'll make snow cones....

[dales]

I might even post in the nude

[Guinevere]

I hate you both. 70 inches of snow so far (the average in Boston is 42), and we have most of February and all of March to contend with. And I'm still dealing with the fall-out from the Boxing Day storm (and will be for months).

[Econoline]

Always keep a good book in the car, I say. And a warm blanket. Lessons from living in cold climates.

Blanket, sweatpants, thermal undies (tops, bottoms and socks), two pairs of gloves, boots, wool hat, flannel shirt, extra coat, water, snack, a shovel (folding style) and a bag of kitty litter (to help with traction) are put in my car at the first sign of a snowstorm and stay there throughout the winter. I spent a year in Buffalo and learned. All of which fit (minus the kitty litter) in a good sized gym bag so you can transfer from car to car.

You forgot the extra pair of warm, dry socks, oldr. (But so did I on Tuesday. When we get oldr, I guess we all start forgetting things... ) And yeah, I really wish I had remembered to bring a good book!

I hate you both. 70 inches of snow so far (the average in Boston is 42), and we have most of February and all of March to contend with. And I'm still dealing with the fall-out from the Boxing Day storm (and will be for months).

We've been lucky here in Chicago, with only normal snowfall up until Tuesday (albeit with lower-than-normal temperatures in Dec. and Jan.). But then, as you say, we still have February and March to go through...

[Jarlaxle]

That sucks, Econoline. You may want to give Quigley a call...they build 4WD vans!

Seriously, tires make ALL the difference. If you have all-season tires, that's the problem.

My F-350 is a 4x4, I run Treadwright's all-terrain tires with Kedge Grip (recycled glass, sand, and crushed walnut shells in the rubber)--they do have the LT245/75R16E that an E-350 uses: LINK. Treadwright is in South Dakota, so they know something about driving in snow!

[loCAtek]

I will never, never-ever-ever live in snow country- you couldn't bike-commute in that!

[oldr_n_wsr]

You forgot the extra pair of warm, dry socks, oldr.

Their on the first line of my post with the thermal undies.

Blanket, sweatpants, thermal undies (tops, bottoms and socks),

[Lord Jim]

Blanket, sweatpants, thermal undies

Don't forget to video tape yourself changing into your thermal undies....

That should garner a lot of hits on You Tube....

[oldr_n_wsr]

doubtful

[Gob]

At the risk of deviating this topic back to the OP

US unemployment down in January as jobless give up
The fall in unemployment may have been due in large part to job-seekers giving up on finding work

US unemployment fell in January to 9% from 9.4% a month earlier, the Department of Labor said.

It is the second such monthly fall, after unemployment fell from a rate of 9.8% in November.

But despite this, the number of jobs created, at 36,000, was far below the expected 140,000.

The poor figure may have been due to blizzards during January, which are thought to have kept many workers at home.

The total number of unemployed fell by 600,000 versus December, according to the data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Some economists interpreted the drop in unemployment as symptomatic of a long-term decline in overall employment levels.

As job-seekers give up looking for work, they ceased to be classified as unemployed.

The number of people "marginally attached to the workforce" - meaning they were not actively looking but available to work - stood at 2.8 million, up from 2.5 million a year earlier.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12364507

[Scooter]

Conversely, the Canadian economy created 69,000 jobs last month (pretty good for an economy of this size), but the unemployment rate went up from 7.6% to 7.8%, because people are jumping back into the labour force.

[Gob]

Here's Aus..

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)


Employment increased to 11,418,100
Unemployment decreased to 618,800
Unemployment rate decreased to 5.1%
Participation rate increased to 66.0%
Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,602.5 million hours


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

Employment increased 2,300 to 11,417,400. Full-time employment increased 1,700 to 8,034,200 and part-time employment increased 600 to 3,383,200.
Unemployment decreased 25,400 (-4.1%) to 598,700. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 11,500 to 426,300.
The number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 13,900 to 172,400.
Unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.0%. The male unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 4.7% and the female unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.3%.
Participation rate decreased 0.2 pts to 65.8%.
Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 3.4 million hours to 1,599.0 million hours.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6202.0

UK

Labour market statistics
January 2011
Date: 19 January 2011

Coverage: United Kingdom Theme: Labour Market

For September to November 2010:

The employment rate was 70.4 per cent and there were 29.09 million employed people.
The unemployment rate was 7.9 per cent and there were 2.50 million unemployed people.
The inactivity rate was 23.4 per cent and there were 9.37 million inactive people aged from 16 to 64.
Total pay (including bonuses) rose by 2.1 per cent on a year earlier.
Regular pay (excluding bonuses) rose by 2.3 per cent on a year earlier.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsuk0111.pdf

[Scooter]

An employment rate of 70%? That dwarfs the Canadian and US rates before the recession started. And the UK is supposed to be the place where millions are lounging around on the dole or some other form of social assistance?

[Gob]

The unemployment rate was 7.9 per cent and there were 2.50 million unemployed people.

[Scooter]

Sure, but to me it's more revealing to look at the employment rate, because those who are not employed may or may not be included in official unemployment figures for many reasons. And an employment rate of over 70% would appear to be pretty impressive.

[Gob]

Well I'm certainly not going to do a Steve all doom and gloom reply to that good fact.

However, long term unemployment is a drain on society and should not be ignored.

[Gob]

US unemployment rate falls to 8.9%




The US unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.9% in February, down from 9% the month before.

It is the third month in a row that the jobless rate has fallen, with February's figure marking a near two-year low.

Employers added 192,000 jobs last month, the US Labor Department said, above market expectations.

President Barack Obama said the jobs figures showed progress in the US economy.

He said the country needed to "keep building on that momentum."

A Labor Department statement said that most job gains were in manufacturing, construction, business services and transport.

With jobs being created in virtually all sectors, February's employment report was the most positive we've seen in a while. But the reality is still sobering.

The unemployment rate remains stubbornly high, with more than 13 million Americans out of work. As the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke testified this week, the current jobs growth is not enough to recover the millions of jobs lost during the recent recession.

And today's figures are only part of the story. They don't take into account those people who have given up looking for work or those who want full time employment but can only find part time jobs.

State and local government slashed 30,000 jobs, the most since November as budget cuts continue to bite.

The data showed that the jobless rate for adult men was 8.7%, for adult women 8%, and for teenagers 23.9%.

The unemployment rate has come down from 9.8% in November.

"We have moved into the expansion phase of the economic cycle and the economy is self-sustaining," said Brian Levitt, an economist at Oppenheimer.

Data for December and January was also revised upwards to show 58,000 more jobs created than previously estimated.

The total number of unemployed people now stands at 13.7 million, still almost double pre-recession levels.

The Labor Department estimated that, when factoring in the number of part-time workers who would rather be working full time and those who have given up looking for work, the percentage of "underemployed" Americans dropped to 15.9% in February.

This is the lowest in nearly two years.

The improving jobless rate reflects growth in the economy. Recent retail and export data have been healthier.

Manufacturing is growing at its fastest pace in nearly seven years and the service sector is expanding at its fastest pace for more than five years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12648347?print=true

[Long Run]

Definitely good news. I also heard a report this morning about how the economy is producing as much now as before the recession began, but with 2.5 million fewer workers. The good news is that means productivity is way up. The bad news is that the economy needs to continue to improve its rate of recovery to get back to reasonably full employment.