Slowing The Decline Isn’t Recovery
On All Things Considered: New Jobs Numbers Point To Fragile Recovery
The jobs market deteriorated in September as employers cut 263,000 jobs, far more than expected. The unemployment rate for the month was 9.8 percent, the highest since June 1983. The quickening pace of layoffs deals a blow to hopes for a solid economic recovery.
The audio is now available and you can find out that, not only have more jobs been cut but the normal precursors to an improving job market [increase in hours worked and more temps being hired] is not happening. Many of the jobs being cut were in state and local governments as they struggle to balance budgets.
One of the local universities has dozens of instructional vacancies it can’t afford to fill because the state cut their funding. Federal stimulus funding has helped to reduce the total number of cuts, but they are turning people away that they would love to have, both students and faculty.
The last recession had a “jobless recovery”, but it was covered up by easy credit and the housing bubble, which fueled the GOPression. Until people have jobs and a steady, reliable income, there isn’t going to be a recovery, no matter what the GDP does. You can’t have an economy if no one can afford to buy.
