Unemployment Now At 7.2%, And…
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Economy, Jobs, Video
Yesterday’s job numbers were hairy, but we have to remember that the underemployment numbers were far worse, and that’s the true measure of where employment is at the present time.
The fine print of yesterday’s report from the Labor Department showed that a broader measure of joblessness — which includes people who are working part-time but would prefer a full-time job and people who want work but have given up looking — rose by nearly a full percentage point, to 13.5 percent.The overall unemployment rate jumped from 6.8 percent in November, the Labor Department said. Employers cut 524,000 jobs last month, 2.6 million over the course of 2008. Companies not only slashed workers, but also cut back on hours for their remaining employees, to the shortest average workweek on record.
“The numbers are pretty rotten,” said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s, “and as you look at the details of this, it’s hard to find any bright spots.”
And here’s a piece of video from the AP…
The only bit of good news? This drop was expected and the markets didn’t absolutely plummet.
Still, if that’s the good news, what’s the bad?
More as it develops…
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 and is filed under Economy, Jobs, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
