For nearly 40 minutes, the administration fielded questions crowdsourced from Mint.com, Examiner.com, and MSN Money readers. The emphasis on social media was evident in the State of the Union itself, which namechecked both Google and Facebook, a first for a U.S. administration. Below is a recap of the issues discussed, and above is a video of the event.

Social Security concerns

Goolsbee opened by echoing the theme of the State of the Union — winning the future by out-innovating, out-educating, out-building and bringing rationality and thought to the economy. While he emphasized the U.S. was the richest country in the world, and with the most productive workers, he acknowledged the concerns of Mint.com readers like Ana Marina Soriano who face an uncertain economic future in a time of high unemployment, threats to social security, and a lack of incentives for long-term saving.

Soriano asked, “”I don’t really have much faith in social security benefits for my generation. What is in place to keep the system up and running?”

“We’ve known for decades about the fiscal challenge associated with the aging of the population and rising healthcare costs,” said Goolsbee, but “the deficit size is not primarily due to discretionary spending.” Going on to say that the forthcoming Obama budget will bring discretionary spending to levels that “have not existed since Dwight Eisenhower was president,” he expressed a willingness on the part of the administration to consider any plan for social security that ensured its survival and prevented it from being privatized. “It’s the most popular government program that has ever been and it has helped assure the safe and secure retirement for millions and millions of people.” Goolsbee stressed that social security is something that requires long-term solutions not short-term fixes.

Unemployment fears

On jobs, Goolsbee said we need to get the job engine running and must now move out of what he called a “rescue phase” and into a growth phase. “It isn’t the case that all the jobs are growing internationally. There were 1.3 million new private sector jobs in the U.S. in the last year. That’s a good start, not near enough but we’re coming into 2011 with a little bit of momentum.”

Still Mint.com readers like John Harvey are concerned with the spending freeze. He asked: “How will spending freeze not result in massive jump in unemployment as in 1937?” While Goolsbee cautioned against comparisons to 1937, he did say that it was important to proceed with more caution than the administration did at that time.

“At this moment, you want to be careful yanking the rug out from what is a fragile recovery. The reason the deficit is large last year and this year is not from the long-run fiscal challenges facing the country, it’s because we just went through the worst recession in virtually all of our lifetimes. When that happens, the automatic stabilizers such as tax revenues go down, spending on unemployment benefits, on a variety of cyclical factors, go up. That’s the main thing driving the business cycle in the short run. The spending freeze on discretionary non-security that the president outlined is over the next five years.”

Still not all of the adminstration’s efforts are aimed at long-term fiscal policy alone. “The president’s tax deal at the end of last year was specifically designed to get more activity in the here and now,” said Goolsbee, “as you look out over the next five years, we’ve got to make tough choices to keep the fiscal situation from deteriorating. It’s a bit of a balancing act. Your reader is exactly right. We want to be mindful not to do things that drive up the unemployment rate in the immediate term. It’s 9.4 percent. It’s way too high. We’ve got to do everything we can to get that down.”

Retirement saving questions

On retirement saving, user “phillip24″ (no full name disclosed) wanted to know, “Will the administration be announcing new initiatives related to retirement saving?”

“We have tried over this period to reduce taxes and give incentives for people to save,” said Goolsbee, “Most of the new programs and incentives we have now are about trying to encourage the private sector to get their employees to save.” One such program encourages companies to make automatic 401(k) enrollment the default option so that even busy people will get the benefit of 401(k) savings plans without too much effort.

Earlier this year, the National Bureau of Economic Research delivered a piece of news that came as a surprise to most Americans: the recession, it determined, had officially ended in June 2009. At a total of 18 months, it now has dubious honor of being the longest U.S. recession since the Great Depression.

But how do Americans feel about it? Do the millions unemployed individuals feel like it really is over? And how do people – employed and unemployed – feel about its aftermath? We compiled the answers those questions, and more, in our latest infographic.

photo: clementine gallot

Looking for signs of an economic revival? Some think they are finding them in last month’s unemployment numbers. Not me.

Yes, the unemployment rate may have dropped from 9.7% to 9.5% in June. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average unemployed worker has been out of work for 35.2 weeks, and the number has been climbing steadily for over a year. The unemployment rate is stuck above 9%, and there are five unemployed workers for every job opening.

Despite this crisis, last week, Congress went home without passing another emergency extension of unemployment benefits. This affects 1.2 million workers: they will no longer collect unemployment checks, but there’s no evidence that losing their benefits will spur them to get a job any faster in a depressed economy. You couldn’t put it any more clearly than a Senate report released this month: “Unemployment Insurance Does Not Discourage Job Search Behavior.”

For workers nearing retirement age or with disabilities, the situation is even worse.

I’d like to tell you about one unemployed person, my neighbor, Deborah. This is not her real name, and I’ve changed a few identifying facts, but the the story is true.

Deborah is 59, divorced, and lived, until recently, in my apartment building. She paints and makes quilts, and has often invited my daughter over to work on art projects. She worked as a teacher and classroom aide in the public school system, and then as an office worker for the local community college, for a total of over 25 years.

A couple of years ago, Deborah developed knee problems which required multiple surgeries. Since then, she’s used a cane, a walker, or a wheelchair. Last year she was laid off. She’s collected unemployment since then. Her benefits ran out last month (to be clear, this was not directly because of Congress’s inaction, but the result is the same regardless of the cause).

For a while, Deborah was looking for work. Eventually, like so many in today’s job market, she gave up. No one, it seems, wants to hire a 59-year-old with a disability. Her computer broke, and she didn’t have the money to get it fixed. She began to spiral down into depression.

Last week, Deborah asked if I would come over and help her with her finances. When I did, it was immediately clear that finances were far from her only problem. Her apartment was a mess, and she told me she was being evicted in two days. She was behind on rent and other bills. We sat down and I asked her what benefits she was receiving.

“Nothing,” she told me.

“What about SSI?” I asked.

“They told me I was getting too much from unemployment to qualify,” she replied.

What about Medicaid or the state health plan? Same answer.

“I’ve always been such a physical person,” Deborah told me. “Now after I walk to the store, I have to take a nap.” She seemed deflated and genuinely surprised that her situation, which had been deteriorating for some time, had finally fallen apart.

I saw Deborah often during this time of slow decay, and in retrospect I should have seen the warning signs and offered to help sooner. However, I don’t know how much I could have done. (Yes, I may just be trying to make myself feel better.) When two of Deborah’s friends came over to help her pack, one told me, “We’ve been trying to give her a sense of urgency about this for months.”

So, better late than never, I picked up the phone. I called Senior Services, who told me they couldn’t help her until she turned 60. I called a city program that helps people apply for public assistance; the voicemail message said they were out of the office and would be back next week. I had the best luck with public housing. I asked (it was actually more of a command) Deborah to sit down with me and fill out the online application for senior and low-income housing. We were able to select housing projects in our neighborhood, which is walkable and well-suited for someone who can neither drive nor walk very far. But people wait up to three years for those properties.

Deborah’s eviction deadline came, and a friend came to pick her up. They left behind piles of belongings, which will go to the dump. Deborah will be staying at her friend’s house for a month or two, until she finds a new place. I spoke to the friend on the phone to offer my help. “I’ve known her for over twenty years,” said the friend. “She’s never gone through a depression like this. She doesn’t know how to deal with it.”

As bad as it is, Deborah’s situation could have been a lot worse. She didn’t turn to alcohol or drugs, she didn’t go into significant debt, and she’s eligible to apply for early retirement benefits from her government jobs. Furthermore, she had friends to call on when she needed them. The friend she’s staying with is going to help her apply for benefits, and I’m going to call the housing authority this week to check on her status.

Still, the whole thing scared the crap out of me. I think I’m smart about money and a good advocate for myself and my family—but I’ve never had this belief tested under fire. If I got into a tough situation, would I curl up into denial? If my wife or a friend told me that I was in bad shape and needed help, would I listen? What self-destructive aspects of my psychology would suddenly come to the fore?

Right now, I feel like I could spring into action and take charge of the situation like Tommy Lee Jones when tragedy strikes. Deborah probably felt that way, too.

I know how to prepare for financial turmoil: my family has savings and insurance. It’s the mental and emotional turmoil that worries me. There’s no insurance against having your brain lock down into short-term survival mode or worse.

This week, I called Deborah to see how she was doing. She sounded a lot better, and she gave me permission to write about her story.

There’s no moral here other than the obvious and cliched ones that I’m trying to etch into my own brain so I can rely on them when the time comes: It’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to accept help. And above all, the part Deborah got unequivocally right: be nice to people, and they’ll be there for you. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s a form of insurance.

Matthew Amster-Burton, author of the book Hungry Monkey, writes on food and finance from his home in Seattle.

photo by: John and Keturah

Yet another unemployment report delivered a mixture of good and bad news Friday. The national jobless rate dropped to 9.5% in June from 9.7% in May — but the U.S. still lost 125,000 jobs.

Many economists expected the unemployment rate to actually increase, and weak expectations make this a pleasant surprise. But it’s still a high number, and discouraging for people who are out of work and have been for a very long time.

There are some reasons to be at least a little optimistic as the economy makes a slow climb back to recovery.

The first is momentum – employment is among the key criteria to drop as a recession sets in, and it’s also among the last indicators to climb at its end.

“Generally the unemployment rate goes up early in a recovery period,” says Bob Brusca, chief economist at FAO Economics. “It’s a sign that people who’ve been out of work and discouraged for a long time are getting more active in the economy.”

Also, the decline in job numbers in this report owes a lot to the once-in-a-decade employment surge created by massive government hiring for the 2010 U.S. Census. About 225,000 of those 433,000 temporary jobs are now over, and that created a net loss of jobs for June.

Encouraging Signs

Census questionnaires aside, there are encouraging signs that businesses are actually gearing up for hiring. There was a net gain of 83,000 private sector jobs in the Labor Department report, and indications that there are more to come.

Monster Worldwide, the online recruiting company, on Thursday said its employment index rose to 141 points in June from 134 in May. The index, a measure of how many jobs are available, is up 21% from a year ago, and was the best showing in almost four years, the company said.

Recovery Still Slow…

Make no mistake, though, the recovery will be slow . “The whole process takes several months, from a business making a decision to expand the headcount to actual hiring,” says Tim Boyd, an analyst at MKM Partners.

This has been especially discouraging for people who have been out of work for long enough to stop receiving unemployment benefits.

One of the more disheartening employment trends during the past recessions has been the ever-longer average unemployment period. In June, nearly half (45.5%) of all unemployed individuals had been out of work for 27 weeks or longer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with 29.6% in June 2009.

“People have expected more job gains faster, and they aren’t getting them,” says Boyd.

… But Job Cuts Also Slowing Down

If nothing else, job seekers and anyone simply anxious about the unemployment rate can take comfort that the pace of job cuts is slowing.

Private employers have announced 297,677 job cuts in the first six months of 2010, according to a survey by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That’s only one-third of the first-half total in 2009. It’s also the lowest figure for that time period since 2000, when the mid-year total was 223,421.

John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, explained that the private sector jobs picture really does offer some positive indications, just not this week.

“With the exception of organizations in the government and non-profit sector, employers are looking six months ahead and apparently do not see a reason to make additional reductions in payrolls,” he said.

A job seeker’s own expectations and urgent need for a paycheck rarely sync up with how companies actually hire, but the experts are starting to see some encouraging signs.

“People may be thinking about recruiting and hiring again,” says Boyd.

At the very least, people who have jobs can probably feel more secure. Although job creation can vary quite a lot in the beginning of a recovery, Challenger says looking past Friday’s unemployment headlines indicates a more encouraging set of prospects for the rest of the year.

“Those who are looking may start to see some success,” he says. “Looking ahead, most employers are growing more and more confident and this will inevitably lead to increased hiring.”

photo by John and Keturah 

This article is provided by Learning Markets.

The unemployment rate in the United States rose from 9.7% in March to 9.9% in April. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also announced that the economy created 290,000 new jobs in April.

How does that work? How is it possible to add jobs to the economy but still see the unemployment rate rise? And what does that mean for your investments?

Though it may seem like a contradiction, the unemployment rate can rise at the same time the economy is adding new jobs because of the way the government calculates the official unemployment rate. The government does not account for people who are not actively looking for work when it determines its official unemployment rate. (For an in-depth look at how various agencies compile and report unemployment statistics, read The Truth Behind Unemployment Reports.)

During the great recession, there were plenty of people who lost their jobs and got so discouraged that they stopped even trying to look for a new one. This caused them to stop being counted in the official unemployment numbers. But now that the economy looks like it is starting to pick back up, these people are regaining some confidence and are starting to actively look for work again—which means they are being counted again.

The numbers are telling us that the economy is starting to pick back up and 290,000 jobs were added last month. They are also telling us that there were more than 290,000 people who were not actively looking for work a month ago because they were so discouraged — but who now are confident enough to start looking again.

While the official unemployment rate may be moving higher, it is actually a good sign for the economy in this case. Hopefully this trend continues.

Learning Markets offers daily articles, videos and investing guides – for free – about everything from investing in stocks and options to trading currencies in the forex market and more.

By any measure, the unemployment rate is on the rise. But exactly how bad is the problem and what are the implications for the broader economy? To put things in perspective, we need to consider how the unemployment rate is calculated, who is considered employed and who isn’t. Many claim the official rate is flawed and presents an optimistic picture that doesn’t truly reflect reality. Other quoted statistics measuring job loss can be deceptive if selective time periods are used. In our latest infographic we have taken a broad view of the American workforce over the last five years showing the various employment conditions and how each is categorized.

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Laid off? Time for Grad School?

So you had a job that you liked (and hopefully not loved) but you, like 9.3 million other Americans, are now jobless. Sitting around in gym shorts sending desperate resumes and cover letters is getting tiring (how many times can you hear the words “hiring” and “freeze” next to each other?), and you’ve always dreamed of being a therapist or photographer or just getting an MBA so you can tell your former Ivy League colleagues to shove it. Should the crappy economy drive you to get a Master’s Degree?

First consider my story: I got a fine degree in the liberal arts. You know the kind, practical, career-oriented and… other buzz words that I am not finding in Nietzsche’s Collected Works. Despite how well prepared I was for the real world (snark!), I decided to go back to school for journalism. After some time in the Illinois corn fields, I had a snazzy master’s degree. But, wait, no one cared about a degree in journalism. And because the “advanced professional” degree basically crammed a four-year program into one, I had the same classes and teachers as students four or five years younger than me, but no internships—those things that get your foot in the door. In fact, on more than a few interviews, I was told that the degree kept me from getting potential jobs because employers were afraid that I’d ask for more money. (And trust me, I’d be doing the same grunt work as a not-yet-jaded 21-year-old.) Ouch.

Some degrees are just a very expensive way of boosting your personal morale when there’s a scary gray area in life—and convenient patch in a university’s bleeding budget–and some are actually empowering career moves. Before you move to the cornfields, please, please do these three things:

Do a cost/benefit analysis

The Council of Graduate Schools sings a pretty convincing tune in its publication Why Should I Get a Masters Degree. The number of degrees awarded in 2007 was up 43 percent over a decade earlier. (Please note that the latest data available is generally for 2007 and 2008, the 2009 school year doesn’t have much released data yet.) According to the publication, a person with a grad degree earns on average $10,000 more per year. He also moves up faster in his career and is more likely to be employed. (The Council also argues, nonsensically, that getting a graduate degree can actually improve your health—in fact, there is a correlation between education and health, but correlation is not causality. Thank you, liberal arts degree, for something useful!) And, yes, the Bureau of Labor Stats agrees, education pays.

The average yearly cost for postgraduate study towards a master’s is $21,900 for a public school and $34,100 for a private one, according to the Department of Education. That is up 60 percent in just one decade. And those numbers are ballooning even more now. A graduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley: $26,000 per year in fees in tuition, plus $1,170 added on after the recent budget catastrophe, bringing just tuition to $27,170 per year of study. Multiply by two, and add about $8,000 to $10,000 per year for living costs. Your loan = $74,340.

That sounds well and good, but there are some degrees that just don’t pay off in the workplace, and some that do. Andrea J. Koncz, Employment Information Manager at National Association of Colleges and Employers, brings up a few professions that do show major pay increases:

Bachelor’s Degree Computer Science – $61,467
Master’s Degree Computer Science – $68,627
 
Bachelor’s Degree Electrical Engineering – $60,509 
Master’s Degree Electrical Engineering – $70,921
 
Bachelor’s Degree Mechanical Engineering – $59,222
Master’s Degree Mechanical Engineering – $66,961

Cartooning? Editing? Sports announcing? Check salary.com, and be prepared for the worst.

Understand that it’s now more competitive, especially at the cheaper schools

Grad school applicants always rise in a poor economy; The Council of Graduate Schools reports that applicants were up 4.8 percent in 2008, after being up 8 percent in 2007. This trend is making it harder to get into school because of the increased competition.

Because of the economy, people are also going after the perceived value of public schools. Public schools were almost twice as likely as private schools to report increases in enrollment for 2009-10 (47 percent vs. 26 percent).
So, basically, you might be looking at as tough of a market for school as for jobs. Even if you are willing to invest despite skyrocketing costs, you may not even you your foot in the door, so best to apply to many schools.

Know the difference between wishful thinking and inspired thinking

If you always had a dream to do something, and you’ve got the excuse and time to finally do it, wonderful. The blog Unemploymentality brings up a good point if you are feeling blindly for that inspiration, though. They says that if you claim the maximum amount of unemployment, you’ll clock in around $21,060 per year, while the average grad student stipend is $18,779. You’ll be counting less change as a couch surfer. Another ouch.

And more to the point, buying into yet another dream that graduate school is selling you could just be deferring the problem of unemployment another year or six, all the while acquiring more and more debt. A great article from the Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that you bite the bullet and get some kind of experience, even if it is in a field that you think is “above” your education. All experience leads somewhere and teaches important skills, even if they aren’t the ones you think you need.

At least one self-made woman and career advisor, Penelope Trunk, advises to stay away from graduate school. She says it forces you to overinvest in something while the reward is just too risky. Trunk says, you’re better off working on a chicken farm. Literally.

In 2009, the number of union jobs in the public sector surpassed those in the shrinking private sector. As job loss and business failure has become increasingly commonplace, the face of unions is changing. We take a look at the prevalence of unions as a percentage of the total workforce around the country, and highlight a demographic breakdown of union membership.

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In times of plenty, relocating for work usually means a better job or a higher standard of living. But in today’s tough economy, many are finding that they just can’t find work or maintain their standard of living where they currently live. It’s especially bad in New York and California, two places where the economy is suffering and the cost of living remains high. Many of these financial refugees are ending up in Texas, a place where the cost of living is low. And many of those that are relocating are in the very lowest income bracket, a further indication that money is their motivation for moving.

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