The Real Misery Index April 2010: Underemployment Woes Lead To Two-Tier Economy

The unemployment crisis continues to stymie a full economic recovery, with ripple effects from credit card delinquencies and rising food stamp participation indicating new hardships for millions of Americans, according to the latest update of Huffington Post's Real Misery Index.

The index for March/April 2010 was 33.1, a slight increase from 33.0 in February, representing another new high in the 26 years going back to 1984 analyzed by HuffPost. Though there have been some encouraging signs, from higher housing prices (which have an inverse relationship to the index) to declining home equity delinquencies, the jobless numbers continue to increase the misery. In addition, nearly 40 million American were enrolled for food stamps in February, which has been described by anti-hunger groups as the highest share of the population ever in the assistance program. (more)