EU crisis revives memories of ’08 crash
May 10
2010
Just as the U.S. economic recovery was starting to gather momentum and create an impressive number of jobs, a new threat emerged last week with the European debt crisis exploding onto U.S. markets. The stock market’s wild gyrations, while abetted by little-understood technical and trading irregularities, were eerily reminiscent of the turmoil in the fall of 2008 when a credit crisis spawned by the collapse of Lehman Brothers for a time brought down the whole global financial system and economy. Despite last week’s tremors, economists do not expect such a drastic, cascading response to the spreading debt crisis in Europe. …
Jobs up 290,000 in April; jobless rate 9.9%
May 7
2010
Read the following and then think about the fact that the bulk of the hiring was temporary government jobs. Now, how do you feel? Is that progress?
UPDATED: The economic recovery strengthened and produced jobs for a fifth straight month in April, with the pace of job growth picking up to 290,000 from 230,000 in March, the Labor Department reported Friday morning. With new jobs now available for the first time in two years, thousands of discouraged job-hunters surged back into the labor force looking for work, driving up the unemployment rate to 9.9 percent from 9.7 percent. The labor force increased by 805,000 as people resumed their job search work, but only 550,000 of the job-hunters reported that they found jobs in the department’s survey of …
Jobless likely to feel pain long-term
Apr 30
2010
Losing a job is always tough, but losing it in the middle of what’s been dubbed the “Great Recession” could hurt for years, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office that hints at just how deep the damage could be to those laid off. CBO analysts are forecasting that even when the out-of-work do find jobs, they’ll be well behind their peers who stayed employed and will lose out on thousands of dollars of earning potential over their lives. Worse still, the study found that, unlike past recessions, the jobs picture won’t improve as quickly this time, …
Tags: jobs, recovery, unemployment
Jobless claims fall to 4-week low
Apr 29
2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped for a second consecutive week, further evidence that the job market is improving slowly. The Labor Department said Thursday that initial applications for jobless benefits dropped by 11,000 to 448,000, the lowest level in four weeks. The new total was slightly higher than economists had expected. The four-week average for claims edged up slightly to 462,500, still above the level that economists believe signals sustained improvements in the job market. Claims have been on a roller coaster in recent weeks, posting sharp increases in the first two …
Tags: jobs, unemployment claims
Unemployment falls in a majority of U.S. cities
Apr 28
2010
Tags: cities, unemployment
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