467,000 Jobs Lost in June

I didn’t lose my job, I juss felt that my ob wasn’t doing anything for me, I mean it gave me money but I felt like it was making me a worse person slowly-retail is juss not for me. As I continue job hunting, such headlines don’t really help:

U.S. Job Losses Rise in June as Unemployment Reaches 9.5%

By PETER S. GOODMAN and JACK HEALY

Published: July 2, 2009

The American economy lost 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent in a sobering indication that the most painful downturn since the Great Depression has yet to release its hold.

“The numbers are indicative of a continued, very severe recession,” said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh. “There’s nothing in here to show that the economy and the market are pulling out of the grip of recession.”

The latest monthly snapshot of the nation’s job situation, released on Thursday by the Labor Department, reinforced a consensus that high levels of unemployment were likely to remain for many months and perhaps years. That will almost surely increase the difficulties of finding work for millions of jobless people while limiting wages and working hours for those employed.

After a May report that showed the pace of deterioration was moderating — with a revised figure of 322,000 net jobs lost for the month — some economists expressed hopes that an economic recovery might finally be emerging. But the June report tempered such visions with the monotony of continued decline.

For another month, manufacturing jobs disappeared, dipping by 136,000, while construction jobs shrank by 79,000 and retail by 21,000. Health care remained a rare bright spot, adding 21,000 jobs.

The losses for June brought the tally of jobs shed since the beginning of the recession to 6.5 million — a figure equivalent to the net job gains over the previous nine years.

“This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all jobs growth from the previous business cycle,” Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute in Washington, said in a research note. She called this fact “a devastating benchmark for the workers of this country and a testament to both the enormity of the current crisis and to the extreme weakness of jobs growth from 2000 to 2007.”

The figures for June did show signs that the pace of job losses is continuing to slow. From November to March — after the collapse of several prominent financial institutions — the labor market lost an average of 670,000 jobs each month. From April to June, the decline slowed to 436,000 a month.

The Obama administration seized on those numbers to argue that its $787 billion spending program aimed at stimulating the economy was gradually working.

“We’re seeing a kind of leveling off here,” Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said in an interview. “We would have done much worse had we not put the recovery plan in place.”

Early this year, the administration projected that the unemployment rate would peak near 8 percent with the stimulus in place. With joblessness already well above that target, some economists are arguing for another dose of government spending — a call Ms. Solis dismissed as premature. Much of the spending is still in the pipeline and trickling out slowly into the economy, particularly in construction projects that require government permits and planning, she said.

In offering the slow pace of stimulus spending as a partial explanation for higher unemployment, Ms. Solis effectively echoed the criticism that some leveled at the spending package when it was devised: that many of the projects would take too long to have their intended effect.

But Ms. Solis expressed assurances that the program was proceeding according to the administration’s plans.

“We’re making progress,” she said.

Some economists contend that a recovery is indeed in its early stages, cautioning that the job market tends to lag behind progress in other areas.

Michael T. Darda, chief economist at the research and trading firm MKM Partners, pointed to a recent rally in the corporate bond market as a sign that normalcy was returning to the financial system, asserting that this presaged the resumption of economic growth in the second half of this year and vigorous activity next year.

“The labor market is going to lag the recovery process to a certain degree,” he said.

But other experts noted that employment was a more crucial source of spending power than in downturns past, given how many alternate sources of cash had been lost.

Consumer spending amounts to 70 percent of overall American economic activity. In recent times, Americans have found myriad ways to fuel spending even as incomes for many households have stagnated, borrowing against the once-rising value of homes and tapping credit cards.

Now, millions of households owe more to the mortgage lender than their house is worth. Millions more have exhausted their credit. The paycheck has returned as the primary source of spending. Yet, as the June jobs report reinforced, paychecks are eroding even for those who have jobs.

The average workweek for rank-and-file employees in the private sector — roughly 80 percent of the work force — slipped by a fraction, to 33 hours, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1964.

Average hourly earnings for such workers have increased by 2.7 percent over the last year, to $18.53. But weekly earnings have risen less than 1 percent, reflecting how millions of people have lost working hours.

The so-called underemployment rate — which captures not only the jobless but also those working part time because their hours have been cut or they cannot find a full-time job — increased to 16.5 percent.

Some economists contend that as long as such numbers prevail, millions of Americans will continue to hunker down, withholding their dollars from car lots, shopping malls and other places of business, thus constraining hiring at auto plants and retail shops and elsewhere.

“It looks really bad,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “People can’t spend when they don’t have the money.”

For another month, the average length of official unemployment continued to increase, this time to 24.5 weeks — the highest level since the government began tracking such data in 1948. The Labor Department did report separately that the number of newly laid-off workers filing for unemployment insurance dropped last week. Initial jobless benefit claims fell by 16,000, to a seasonally adjusted 614,000.

While layoffs have slowed in recent months, hiring has yet to pick up, meaning that jobless people face a more agonizing search than ever — a human toll not captured by the data.

In the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Jeffrey Jones, 40, has found nothing since losing his job as a cook at a senior center in October. He worries about paying rent and caring for his four children. His blood pressure is up, and some nights he stays up and watches television to distract himself from the worries that keep him from sleeping.

“I know I’m not supposed to be letting it stress me out,” he said. “The way I’m going now, I won’t be able to make it too much longer. I can’t go this long without doing something for my family.”

Source: The New York Times

Take care inshaAllah, and keep every single person in the world in your du’as.

-radf

Allahumma sali ala sayyidina muhammadin an-Nabbiyil ummiyi Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim.

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