America’s official national unemployment rate is now 10.2%. But there are more sad numbers in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s October report, out today. Jobless rate in some states is higher. Michigan’s the most grim: 15.1 percent. Nevada: 13.0, Rhode Island: 12.9, California: 12.5, South
Carolina: 12.1. Over the year, rates are up in all 50
states and in D.C. Among cities, Detroit’s tops. 30%. The actual, practical toll of unemployment is worse when you count the underemployed and those on the streets and off the grid.