There have been a few bright spots on the economic front lately (stock market,

9,000 more jobless applications were added to the total, which had been revised upwards to 645,000.
More numbers from Bloomberg:
The number of people staying on benefit rolls rose in the previous week by 193,000 to a record 5.317 million.
Employers ranging from United Technologies Corp. to AMR Corp., which owns American Airlines, have announced more than 823,000 [...]

It makes sense that Michigan is getting hit the hardest, but check out which states are doing just fine…

Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah and Louisiana are all under 6% and some of them are under 4%.
That doesn’t bode well for getting much support from Republicans or moderate Dems when [...]

And given the trend of these numbers being revised upwards, February’s numbers will most likely be over 700,000 by next month.
As I’ve said before, it’s getting worse and there are no signs that it’s going to get any better any time soon.
From CNBC:
ADP said on Wednesday that private employers cut 697,000 jobs in February versus [...]

The biggest economy in America is now suffering from double digit unemployment.
So what about underemployment? Well, that’s probably closing in on 20%.
Just thought you should know.

Much higher than expected.

Whether you think the stimulus plan is a brilliant idea or a dangerous waste of money, chances are, you wouldn’t mind getting your hands on a little of that $787 billion the government will be paying out. So, how can you cash in (in ways larger than the pittance of a tax break most of [...]

You want private sector job growth as a result of the new bill?
This is an encouraging start:
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama says Caterpillar’s chief executive has told him the company will rehire some laid-off workers if the stimulus bill passes.
The heavy equipment maker announced more than 22,000 job cuts last month as it scales [...]

Compared to now…

The situation is certainly getting worse and there are no indications I’ve seen that it’ll get better anytime soon…
The United States lost nearly 600,000 jobs last month, sending the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, the highest in 16 years, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.
News of the increase, up from 7.2 percent, was [...]

January saw the largest one-month job loss since late 1974. Businesses eliminated 598,000 jobs. In the last 12 months, the nation has lost 3.5 million jobs, the largest 12 month job loss since records started in 1939.
While the employment rate is still at a manageable 7.6%, the numbers of unemployed workers are rising and the [...]

The following story about DHL from 60 Minutes is absolutely heartbreaking.

And people really think we can fix the economy with tax breaks?
This is going to get a lot worse.

The Minnesota recount saga still hasn’t ended, but Coleman is already moving on?
Hrmm…
Last session’s senior senator from Minnesota Norm Coleman, still battling Al Franken to be seated in the Senate, has taken a paid job as a consultant to the Republican Jewish Coalition, which harshly attacked Obama last fall, its executive director, Matt Brooks, said.
Coleman [...]

As we’ve heard from nearly every circle, including Obama’s, is that it’ll get worse before it gets better.
This news seems to bear that out.
From Bloomberg…
More than 20 companies said they were cutting jobs, ranging from Amonil SA, Romania’s second-biggest fertilizer maker, to Fiat SpA’s Magneti Marelli auto-parts division. Hertz, the second-largest U.S. rental-car company, said [...]

There seems to be a lot of resistance to the idea of a stimulus package because the employment numbers aren’t nearly as bad as those during The Great Depression.
But you have to look at the numbers in a historical context if you want to understand the entire story.
From Reuters:
Figures collected for Reuters by John Williams, [...]

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.
From Wash Post:

The fine print of yesterday’s report from the Labor Department showed that a broader measure of joblessness — which includes people who are working [...]

Looks like all that money and influence peddling won’t stop Dems from pushing this hot button issue off to the side for a while.
From WSJ:
It hasn’t been much noticed, but the political ground is already shifting under Big Labor’s card-check initiative. The unions poured unprecedented money and manpower into getting Democrats elected; their payoff was [...]

I think this has a lot more to do with the fact that this has been spun as free money as opposed to giving these companies loans (GM and Chrysler) or at least access to lines of credit (Ford), but nonetheless…
From Wash Post:
Overall, 55 percent of those polled oppose the latest plan that Chrysler, Ford [...]

With the startling new unemployment numbers coming out this week, it’s a good time to focus on what this actually means to the individual people.
New York Times takes a look at the 275 workers who were recently laid off when the Archway cookie factory had to shutter its doors in the fall…
About 10.3 million Americans [...]

The following video includes an analyst from Forbes casually predicting that the official unemployment number will increase 50% from the current 6.7% to 10%. This speaks to the idea that we haven’t hit bottom yet and it’ll get worse before it gets better. However, underemployment is nearly double the current unemployment number at 12.5% and [...]

Say hello to the New Deal 2.0.
It’ll be bigger than anything we’ve ever seen and it’ll effect everything, from schools to electric grids to mass transit to public works to hospitals.
Also, government buildings will finally become energy efficient and hopefully serve as a model of how Washington can lead on issues instead of being a [...]