Unemployment in America | 04/03/2009 8:15 am
Unemployment Up to 8.5 Percent, But Not All's Bad
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We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but we have to tell you: The job market’s not looking good.
Actually, it’s looking abysmal — and a bit familiar. New numbers today show that unemployment has reached 8.5 percent, a number not seen since 1983. Does this prove that everything old is new again? Sadly, yes.
MSNBC elaborates on the ugly numbers:
Employers laid off workers at a torrid pace in March, handing 663,000 people pink slips and driving the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent, the highest in almost 26 years, government data showed Friday.
Job losses have topped 600,000 for a record four straight months.
The economy’s not all bad news. Some car companies are seeing a minor uptick in purchases, while orders for manufactured goods have risen 1.8%, according to the Commerce Department. Regardless, it will likely be a few months before the job market adjusts to these slight improvements.
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Jobless rate bolts to 8.5 percent, 663K jobs lost Jobless rate jumps to 8.5 percent, highest since late 1983; payrolls drop 663,000WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s unemployment rate jumped to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since late 1983, as a wide swath of employers eliminated 663,000 jobs. It’s fresh evidence of the toll the recession has inflicted on America’s workers, and economists say there’s no relief in sight.
If part-time and discouraged workers are factored in, the unemployment rate would have been 15.6 percent in March, the highest on records dating to 1994, according to Labor Department data released Friday.
The average work week in March dropped to 33.2 hours, a new record low. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 5.1 million jobs, with almost two-thirds of the losses occurring in the last five months.
"It’s an ugly report and April is going to be equally as bad," predicted Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
It just hit 10% in my state of ORegon. The paper had a story today that the so called "stimulus" has created only 16 jobs so far! And four of those are already back on unemployment as they were short term forest thinning jobs are completed!
That does not even take into consideration the self employed….probably more like 20% including them.