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Posted on 01/09/2009 9:49:30 AM PST by NormsRevenge
The US economy lost more than half a million jobs in December for the second month running, new figures showed on Friday, making 2008 the worst year for job losses since 1945.
The unemployment rate – which hit a low of 4.4 per cent prior to the start of the credit crisis – jumped to 7.2 per cent, its highest level in 16 years. Unemployment has now risen by a full percentage point since September, when the crisis intensified with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the investment bank.
There was a further rise in the number of discouraged workers no longer actively seeking employment.
President-elect Barack Obama seized on the report – which he said showed the situation in the jobs market was “dire” and “deteriorating” – to urge swift passage of his proposed near-$800bn fiscal stimulus by Congress.
“This morning we received a stark reminder of how urgently action is needed,” he said. “For the sake of our economy and our people, this is the time to act without delay.”
Stock markets sagged on the news even though the headline number of 524,000 jobs lost was less than the 600,000-plus figure feared by many analysts as investors focused on the grim details of the report.
Average hours worked by those with jobs fell to 33.3 hours a week, the lowest level since this number was first estimated in 1964 – while the number of temporary help workers also fell. Both numbers suggesting further large job losses are likely to follow.
Meanwhile, revisions to previous months data showed job losses in October and November were even larger than originally reported. The only faint piece of positive news was an increase in hourly earnings.
Goldman Sachs said it was “another terrible employment report, although not perhaps as bad as some in the market had feared.”
Job losses were more concentrated in manufacturing and construction than in November, although this could reflect incomplete adjustment for seasonal factors. Only health and education, plus the government sector, eeked out positive gains.
Including the figures for December, the US manufacturing sector lost 791,000 jobs in 2008, while the retail trade lost 522,000.
There were early signs on Friday that the political pendulum – which had swung away from swift package of a fiscal stimulus of nearly $800bn or larger following this week’s $1,200bn deficit warning from the Congressional Budget Office – was swinging back in favour following the jobs report.
Manufacturing industry associations, labour unions and others issued statements demanding swift passage of a big stimulus.
The roots of this whole mess are about as transparent as the global warming hoax and the liberal agenda.
There are three times as many jobs now as there was then, the idiot who wrote this should have also said that more people are unemployed than the population of Detroit.
100 years ago it would be true.
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Uh oh, and the world came to an end in 1945, didn’t it?
1945 was a transition year from military to civilian jobs.
Cut the idiot who wrote this a little slack, will ya. He was "eeked out" about the whole thing. LOL
(I love some spelling errors.)
From the article: "Only health and education, plus the government sector, eeked out positive gains.)
They finally let an honest report through. It won’t hurt GWB at this point, and makes it easier to get back to faking them lower later in the year to “prove” that Obama’s policies are just the stuff.
I'm just sayin'
Yep and it seems that no matter what happens the same bad players are being looked to for salvation. We need someone who will unleash the punishment that is deserved on our persistent bad leadership. Someone who will channel the blame where it squarely belongs. This is an opportunity but the great leader seems to be absent. John McCain could have been that leader but he failed the test being more than happy to blame the freemarket along with the the rest of the cowardly bunch on capital hill.
Wow. Lots of new members for the Free Republic Economic Denial Club today.
I guess I don't know how to do this Million Man Math. The difference between 4.4 and 7.2 is one percentage point? And didn't the credit crisis really begin well after September?
Lots of new members for the Free Republic Economic Denial Club today.
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Now if we can only get some of them to dump their pockets and donate to FR, we’ll be getting somewhere. :)
>>>I guess I don’t know how to do this Million Man Math. The difference between 4.4 and 7.2 is one percentage point? And didn’t the credit crisis really begin well after September?
The one percent gain was since Septmber 2008. The 4.4% rate was from March 2007. The credit crisis began in July 2007, with the closing of high yield debt markets, the tightening of credit standards and rising of rates for interbank lending. As the story noted, the crisis intensified this past September with the collapse of Lehamn.
There’s an excellent graph on MarketWatch.com that really puts the annual job loss picture in perspective over the past 65+ years!!!
The unemployment really isn’t that bad but it still doesn’t change the fact that a government too large and too involved has led to this mess. We still are very close to what was previously considered “full employment” even with the doom and gloom. Whether things get much worse will be a test of the new administration which seems to want to take a dualistic approach. That Obama is seriously considering cutting corporate taxes and hold off on raising taxes is a testament that he wishing to be more than a one term President. If he gives in to those who want to “stick it to the rich” we are going to find unemployment exceeding 15-20%. Some areas of the country already have reached 10% unemployment. I expect it to get immediately worse when the new minimum wage increases kick in. Also it isn’t just here that the wages are going up. So we should see businesses squeezed even more internationally also and the number of jobs will be reduced and the workload on existing employees will rise.
The problem with minimum wages is that they are not indexed to the reality of business profitability and until the naive politicians and labor unions accept that reality things will get worse.
“You BETCHA!!! (grin)
You didn’t get the memo?
All business must be “non-profit”.
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