U.S. employers cut 80,000 jobs in March

[Gunny]

Associated Press
updated 3:52 p.m. CT, Fri., April. 4, 2008

WASHINGTON - It’s no longer a question of recession or not. Now it’s how deep and how long.

Workers’ pink slips stacked ever higher in March as jittery employers slashed 80,000 jobs, the most in five years, and the national unemployment rate climbed to 5.1 percent. Job losses are nearing the staggering level of a quarter-million this year in just three months.

For the third month in a row total U.S. employment rolls shrank — often a telltale sign that the economy has jolted dangerously into reverse.

At the same time, the jobless rate rose three-tenths of a percentage point, a sharp increase usually associated with times of deep economic stress.

The grim picture described by the Labor Department on Friday provided stark evidence of just how much the jobs market has buckled under the weight of the housing, credit and financial crises. Businesses and jobseekers alike are feeling the pain.

“It is now very clear that the fat lady has sung for the economic expansion. The country has slipped into a recession,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. Indeed, there is widening agreement that the first recession since 2001 has arrived. Even Ben Bernanke, in a rare public utterance for a Federal Reserve chairman, used the “r” word, acknowledging for the first time this week that a recession was possible.

more ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23953769/

More good news.

 

[rayboyusmc]

Let's hope that whatever has to be done to help fix this situation is done and no one plays partisan games with it.

Don't know if any of you have been out of work, but it sucks. Right now to lose your job in a bad job market is even worse.

After studying micro and macro enconomics, I don't think anyone really has the definitive asnwer to this.

 

[Paulie]

After studying micro and macro enconomics, I don't think anyone really has the definitive asnwer to this.

Some do. And they've been given a lot more media time as of late, too, interestingly.

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By the way, that last one is the best one. If you want some good investment advice, you'll do well to listen to Jim Rogers.

 

[trobinett]

Here's an idea, get a job.

It WILL surprise you on how EVERYTHING else will work itself out.

Trust me.............

 

[Paulie]

Here's an idea, get a job.

Yeah, there's a real surplus on them these days.

 

[Toro]

Get used to graphs that look like this

 

[Gunny]

Let's hope that whatever has to be done to help fix this situation is done and no one plays partisan games with it.

Don't know if any of you have been out of work, but it sucks. Right now to lose your job in a bad job market is even worse.

After studying micro and macro enconomics, I don't think anyone really has the definitive asnwer to this.

What I don't like is this "pile on" effect. It's like everyone wants to get someone else's last dime and have jacked their prices accordingly.

And when oil industry representatives tell Congress "tough shit" about jacking up the price of gas -- gas being necessary for this nation to function -- I have no problem with government regulating their asses. I'm fine with capitalism until it puts itself ahead of our national best interest.

 

[KungFusion]

"Here's an idea, get a job.

It WILL surprise you on how EVERYTHING else will work itself out.

Trust me............."

I don't trust you - i have a job and i hate it. i make decent money and support myself, but i have to devote 10 hours a day (the majority of my time spent awake) to doing crap that i find insipid and pointless. My job is a constant source of stress and disillusionment.

Work as salvation is a lie - unless you do what you enjoy (and i'm gonna go out on a limb and say that most people don't) then it's just wage-slavery.

Work, consume, grow old, be forgotten, die unknown: the American Dream? . . . no, everything else will NOT necessarily work itself out.

 

[BrianH]

I feel like unemployment is a bit different now than what it may have been during the Depression and in the past. It seems like today people are entirely too picky about what they want to do, and are unwilling to temporarily do something different. They're so unwilling to get a lower-paying job to tide them over until they can find work again.

I've talked to a guy that has an architecture degree, moved to a place on earth that has almost no need for architects. He can't find a job anywhere, yet he's too proud of his degree to do anything less. So instead, he's unemployed and making little money. There's plenty of other jobs around here that are hiring, but he refuses to do them because they pay a few dollars less than what he's looking for. Well I've got news, a few dollars is better than no dollars.

There are lots of jobs in this country if people would only buckle-down and do them. People during the depression had to do what they had to do in order to survive. It seems like some people are willing to be jobless for a year until something they've wanted comes open. When they could be earning money in the mean time. Just my opinion.

 

[M14 Shooter]

I feel like unemployment is a bit different now than what it may have been during the Depression...

Yes. Had the unemployment rate been 5.1% during the depression, FDR wold have been revered as a god.

Not that some people dont see him that way now...

 

[Shogun]

And when oil industry representatives tell Congress "tough shit" about jacking up the price of gas -- gas being necessary for this nation to function -- I have no problem with government regulating their asses. I'm fine with capitalism until it puts itself ahead of our national best interest.






A fucking Men

 

[nibor]

Let's hope that whatever has to be done to help fix this situation is done and no one plays partisan games with it.

Don't know if any of you have been out of work, but it sucks. Right now to lose your job in a bad job market is even worse.

After studying micro and macro enconomics, I don't think anyone really has the definitive asnwer to this.

I do but no one listened.....................

 

[DavidS]

Associated Press
updated 3:52 p.m. CT, Fri., April. 4, 2008

WASHINGTON - It’s no longer a question of recession or not. Now it’s how deep and how long.

Workers’ pink slips stacked ever higher in March as jittery employers slashed 80,000 jobs, the most in five years, and the national unemployment rate climbed to 5.1 percent. Job losses are nearing the staggering level of a quarter-million this year in just three months.

For the third month in a row total U.S. employment rolls shrank — often a telltale sign that the economy has jolted dangerously into reverse.

At the same time, the jobless rate rose three-tenths of a percentage point, a sharp increase usually associated with times of deep economic stress.

The grim picture described by the Labor Department on Friday provided stark evidence of just how much the jobs market has buckled under the weight of the housing, credit and financial crises. Businesses and jobseekers alike are feeling the pain.

“It is now very clear that the fat lady has sung for the economic expansion. The country has slipped into a recession,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. Indeed, there is widening agreement that the first recession since 2001 has arrived. Even Ben Bernanke, in a rare public utterance for a Federal Reserve chairman, used the “r” word, acknowledging for the first time this week that a recession was possible.

more ... U.S. employers cut 80,000 jobs in March - Stocks & economy- msnbc.com

More good news.

Boy what we would do today for only 80,000 job cuts. We're going to have close to 1 million as of Friday. How things have changed over the past year.