US loses 2 million jobs in two years; worst hiring slump in almost 20 years...

New York Times ^

[Michael81Dus]

Can´t you send us some hundreds of thousands jobless? We´ll pay each of them 600 € (660 $) per month. It will lead to the highest unemployment rate since WWII, and that could help us getting rid of our Chancellor. :-)

[lady lawyer]

If we deported the 8 million illegals, there would be jobs to spare.

[unspun]

We used to make things here in North America, Michael.

We still buy things though, until we run out of money, then we use our credit cards.

Nice tag.

[steve50]

Saw an article today that claims the government employees now outnumber the private sector, no society can last long that way.

[oust the louse]

Speaking for many headhunters I know(i'm one)it's been very thin as far as our business goes the last few years.The high tech electronics industry keeps building plants overseas in China and there is such an over abundance of plant space already closed down.Companies have lost billions already over there but they keep tossing bad money after bad money.

[Michael81Dus]

? Did you mean with "Nice tag." my tag line or "Schönen Tag" (Nice day.") ?
In the first case, thanks, it wasn´t my idea. In case of the second, good afternoon, my post should be understand as a joke.

[Bonaparte]

And George Bush did nothing to prevent it.

[ClearCase_guy]

I'm so confused. This is the worst it's been in nearly 20 years. In fact, this data is "worse" than in the early 1990's. But Bill Clinton campaigned on the "fact" that the early 1990's were the worst economy in 50 years. Gee, that doesn't make sense.

I remember the hard times of the early 1980's. Not a pretty economic picture. But then we got a big tax cut, and seriously opposed our enemies overseas. I forget ... what happened to the economy after that?

[SwinneySwitch]

"About 1 million people appear to have dropped out of the labor force since last northern summer, neither working nor looking for a job."

Could they be on un-employment and/or dead?

[grania]

The surge in discouraged workers, the most significant since immediately after the recession's start, suggests the pain has worsened even though the official unemployment rate, which counts only people looking for work, held steady at 6 per cent in December.

It's not just discouraged workers. Anyone who was "self employed" or a contract worker is not part of the unemployment system. When the private learning center I worked at until September, I got no warning, no unemployment benefits...heck, I didn't even get my August paycheck. Any one in these categories isn't tallied as unemployed.

Well, anyway, I collect a pension that (just barely) pays the bills, but I really need to make some money. I'm (I'll brag) an extremely qualified, experienced, and highly regarded Math remediator-tutor-test prepper-teacher. Well, I'm tutoring some (usually just catching kids up) and (barf warning) substituting.

Anyway, my point. My area of expertise is just cluttered with absolutely unqualified people who are hanging on to their jobs for dear life, and just plain not teaching the kids the curriculum. Is it like that in other fields? Qualified people pound pavement because there is just no movement of ill-suited workers. (But they really are great for not making ripples)

You know what I'd like to see? Any non-citizen has a job and a qualified citizen comes along, that non-citizen should be sent to their homeland and the citizen should be able to claim that job. The employer doesn't like the citizen employee...fine, fire them, just hire another US citizen.

In stores, if a company can produce a product in the US that's competitive, that company should be able to demand shelf space.

This isn't as nutty as it sounds. Citizens really have to take back the country, the future, the economy, and secure lives. This is just not a time where these workers are needed or desirable, unless you're a CFO looking for the government to subsidize labor costs with programs for the poor immigrant workers.

And, by the way, anyone in Southeastern Massachusetts who knows of a private or public high school that needs an excellent long-term Math substitute, please let me know by private mail.

[unspun]

Saw an article today that claims the government employees now outnumber the private sector, no society can last long that way.

Is it in FR? Can you post it? If that's true, it's hammerin' time.

[SwinneySwitch]

Is the northern summer different than our southern summer?

[unspun]

I mean guden linen -- wait, no.

[unspun]

What he said

[Michael81Dus]

I guess I know what you meant, alright. You thought of my tag line. :-)
We probably would call it "gute Zeile" (good line).

[DWPittelli]

The unemployment rate is 6.0%. The average for the period 1946-2002 was 5.5%. So, despite terror-war and recession, we're only 0.5% above average. It sucks if you're one of the 6%, but it's not a very high rate.

All of the article's other tales of woe are basically BS. The level of "discouraged workers" is always trotted out when a journalist wants to make things sound worse. They go up and down with the unemployment rate, and are no more real now than at any other such time. As the article states: "The surge in discouraged workers [is] the most significant since immediately after the recession's start." Oh my god! That's the worst in almost two whole years!

Further, if the average length of unemployment is longer than some other time when the unemployment rate was 6.0%, then that means, to the same extent, that fewer people were laid off. The unemployment rate is proportional to the number of layoffs multiplied by the average time of unemplyment. Yet the article makes the absurd claim that our 6% unemployment rate doesn't tell us the full story, that both layoffs and length of unemployment are unusually bad. Bogus!

[altayann]

I remember the hard times of the early 1980's. Not a pretty economic picture. But then we got a big tax cut, and seriously opposed our enemies overseas. I forget ... what happened to the economy after that?

'Klinton' got elected, and started lying about how well the economy was really doing.

I'm beginning to wish George would do the same thing.

[Michael Barnes]

Saw an article today that claims the government employees now outnumber the private sector, no society can last long that way.

I assume that is a cumulative of Federal, State and Military combined?