US economy sheds 131,000 jobs in July

[inna]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100806/bs_afp/useconomyunemployment

US economy sheds 131,000 jobs

2 hrs 8 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US economy shed more jobs than expected in July, the Labor Department said Friday, heightening fears that the world's largest economy will take years to fully recover from a crippling recession.

Some 131,000 jobs were lost and the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.5 percent last month, officials said, as federal and local governments slashed jobs. The private sector was unable to offset a massive government layoff of 143,000 census-takers, with firms creating only a modest 71,000 jobs.

The figures were seen as yet another sign that the US economic recovery is stagnating, and that the jobs market may take years to get back on its feet.

"The current pace of employment is too slow to replace the more than eight million jobs lost in the recession -- not in the next year or two, perhaps even not in the next five years," said Bart van Ark, chief economist of The Conference Board, a business research firm. "It's unlikely that industries such as construction and manufacturing will ever return to pre-recession employment levels."

Analysts had predicted the ranks of working Americans would shrink by 87,000 in July, pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.6 percent. Revisions to June figures also compounded the angst. The Labor Department said 221,000 jobs had been lost versus the 125,000 earlier reported.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/06/news/economy/jobs_july/index.htm


July jobs report: Economy still losing jobs

August 6, 2010: 11:12 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- For the second month in a row, the U.S. economy shed jobs as the government continued to unload census workers, offsetting disappointing gains in private business hiring. The Labor Department on Friday reported a net loss of 131,000 jobs in July, an improvement from the revised loss of 221,000 jobs in June.

~snip~

There needs to be an overall gain of about 150,000 jobs per month just to keep pace with population growth.

~snip~

The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.5% in June. Economists had expected the jobless rate to edge up to 9.6%. But that was mostly because of 381,000 workers who stopped looking for work in recent weeks, and were therefore no longer counted as part of the labor force. That jump in discouraged workers may have been partly due to the loss of extended unemployment benefits for many jobless during the month. Without the incentive of having to look for work to collect benefits, many workers simply gave up looking.

The percentage of the population with jobs fell for the third straight month to 58.4% and is now approaching the 26-year low in that reading reached in December.

[Skittles]

1. dismal

[inna]

2. To say the least. It's shocking that there was a NET LOSS of 350,000 jobs in the last two months.

Some recovery.

[Skittles]

8. not shocking when the problem is not being addressed

[Starry Messenger]

3. k & r

[Arctic Dave]

4. Worry not chattel, your corporate overlords shall still be able to swim in their bonus monies.

I knew you were worried about their lifestyles being affected by the down turn.

[inna]

5. The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever Takes A Turn For The Worse:

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/08/july-employment-report-12k-jobs-ex.html

[maryf]

20. Ouch, ouch, ouch...

ouch.

[Subdivisions]

6. But, but, but...

Awww, fuck it...

[FirstLight]

7. I don't get it...

How can we be losing this many jobs? they can't ALL be going overseas :shrug:

The only thing I can think of is all the small businesses that are going under, etc... seems like EVERYONE is out of money. nobody can afford anything but essentials, and sometimes not even THAT. I swear, in the past year I have seen more businesses go under here on our main blvd. than ever...i'd guess about 1 in 3 shops have shuttered....

ya, and welfare to work says we have to engage in 32 hours a week of 'work related activity' which has come to be a farce. you can only distribute so many resumes, make so many phone calls, until all avenues have been exhausted.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. Contraction. Hoarding money. Minimal investments.

It's not a spiral upward.

[inna]

19. It's stunning, really. "A Sin and a Shame", the way Bob Herbert of NYT put it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/31/opinion/31herbert.html?src=me&ref=general

A Sin and a Shame

The treatment of workers by American corporations has been worse — far more treacherous — than most of the population realizes. There was no need for so many men and women to be forced out of their jobs in the downturn known as the great recession.

Many of those workers were cashiered for no reason other than outright greed by corporate managers. And that cruel, irresponsible, shortsighted policy has resulted in widespread human suffering and is doing great harm to the economy.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. “Not only did they throw all these people off the payrolls, they also cut back on the hours of the people who stayed on the job.”

As Professor Sum studied the data coming in from the recession, he realized that the carnage that occurred in the workplace was out of proportion to the economic hit that corporations were taking. While no one questions the severity of the downturn — the worst of the entire post-World War II period — the economic data show that workers to a great extent were shamefully exploited.

Robert Reich explains it all here:

http://www.alternet.org/story/147653/corporate_profits_return%2C_but_there's_nearly_zero_hiring/?page=entire
Corporate Profits Return, But There's Nearly Zero Hiring.
Big American companies may never rehire large numbers of workers, even as their bottom lines keep growing.


http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6277/more_compassion_needed_for_multinationals_at_time_of_high_profits_no_j
For Multinationals, U.S. Wages, and Workers, No Longer Key to Profits




It's really frightening that the President's "solution" to the job crisis is... more NAFTA-like Free Trade Agreements.

[blindpig]

9. k&r

[taught_me_patience]

11. 71k private sector jobs better than nothing but anemic for a "recovery"

However, it will probably be revised lower in coming months.

[Donnachaidh]

12. kick and Rec! n/t

[EstimatedProphet]

13. Rachel is talking about this right now

It's a lot more complex that Yahoo or CNN is making it out to be.

[inna]

15. What was she saying? It what ways "more complex"? (No cable news here.)

[EstimatedProphet]

17. OK, when I put this up she was in the middle of it

Now she's done.

We did lose 131,000 jobs, even though there's officials saying that we gained jobs. The jobs we lost are public sector - in other words, state and local government. The reason we lost them is because the way we watered down the stimulus allowed for $0 billion to be cut from funding state and local initiatives which would have hired people. That, along with a lot of temporary Census jobs, means we lost jobs overall. The real complication is that the stimulus got watered down to bring Repubs on board, so this is their doing more than anything else, and now they're pointing fingers at Obama for not trying hard enough.

[L0oniX]

14. "sheds"makes is sound like it's something you want to get rid of.

I would term it "US economy forces 131,000 more people to live on the streets".

[amborin]

16. k and r

[OhioChick]

18. K&R n/t

[maryf]

21. crippling recession??

try depression, K&R

[Karmadillo]

22. K&R. I imagine this isn't going to help Obama's "Summer Recovery" tour.

nt