Posted on 02/06/2003 12:22:16 PM PST by RCW2001
February 7 2003
The US economy has fallen into its worst hiring slump in almost 20 years, and many business executives say they remain unsure when it will end.
The job decline is even worse than it was at a comparable point in the so-called jobless recovery of the early 1990s, according to recently revised statistics from the Labor Department. The economy has lost more than 2 million jobs, a drop of 1.5 per cent, since March 2001, as the layoffs continued despite resumption of economic growth more than a year ago.
About 1 million people appear to have dropped out of the labor force since last northern summer, neither working nor looking for a job.
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.
"Last year," said Tom Koehn, 50, who lost his job at a machinery maker in South Bend, Indiana, in May, "I heard a lot of people say, 'Come back after the first of the year; if the economy picks up, we might hire some people'. But so far, I haven't found anybody who's hiring
The shortage of jobs has also slowed wage growth so that only workers in the most affluent groups are still gaining ground on inflation, ending a six-year streak of broad increases in buying power.
Manufacturers of durable goods like computers, furniture and steel have made the deepest cuts, with one of every nine jobs in these industries eliminated since early 2001. Airlines, brokerage firms and makers of clothing and textiles have also each cut at least a tenth of their work forces.
Executives say they have been disappointed too many times by the halting growth of the last year to begin hiring workers in significant numbers, though the government is likely to report today that the economy added some jobs in January.
New York research group the Conference Board said December help-wanted advertisements in newspapers across the country fell to the lowest level in almost 40 years.
The New York Times
The heck with Taxachusetts, pack up and move to Florida. Since my fellow voters were so kind () to saddle us with the "class size initiative" I'm sure they'll be hiring out the wazoo soon. And I know they don't have enough subs now. Wages are lower, but hey, no state income tax :)
By pushing a generous tax-cut stimulus plan? I've always thought that sort of thing boosted investment, business and jobs.
Here's today's news. So much for your pessimism, statist:
"The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell last month as payrolls jumped by the biggest amount in two years, suggesting that the ailing labor market may finally be stabilizing. The unemployment rate fell to 5.7% in January from 6% the previous month, the Labor Department said Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 143,000 jobs -- the largest rise since November 2000."
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