WASHINGTON — Finally, a lot fewer workers are hearing the dreaded words, "You’re fired.”
In the clearest sign yet that the recession is ending, layoffs slowed dramatically in July, the jobless rate dipped for the first time in 15 months and workers’ hours and pay edged upward.
Those are the kinds of figures that could give Americans the psychological boost necessary for recovery to take root after the worst recession since World War II.
A net total of 247,000 jobs were lost last month, the fewest in a year and a drastic improvement from the 443,000 jobs that vanished in June.
The Labor Department’s report Friday showed that the unemployment rate dropped a notch to 9.4 percent in July, from 9.5 percent the previous month. Together with slight increases in the average workweek and wages, the new figures suggested the economy is in a transition from recession to recovery.
"The worst may be behind us,” President Barack Obama declared. "Today, we’re pointed in the right direction.”
Still, the job market remains shaky.
A quarter-million lost jobs are a far cry from the employment growth needed to put the national economy on solid footing.
When the economy is healthy, employers need to add a net total of about 125,000 jobs a month to keep the unemployment rate stable. And to push the jobless rate down to a more normal 5 percent, it would take stronger growth — at least 200,000 new jobs a month. Economists say it might take until 2013 to drive down the unemployment rate to 5 percent.
Yet the improvements in July could give some businesses the confidence to hire again — or at least not to lay off more workers. And consumers, less anxious about losing jobs, could respond by spending more freely.
"If people and companies think the worst is behind them — and it probably is — their confidence will be restored,” said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. "That confidence can feed on itself.”
On Wall Street, the report propelled stocks higher. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 114 points, and other stock averages also gained.
Analysts had been forecasting bleaker employment figures: more job losses and an increase in the unemployment rate to 9.6 percent.
The White House said the president still expects the rate to hit 10 percent this year. So do many economists and the Federal Reserve.
The worst may be behind us.”
President Barack Obama
by the associated press
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Showing posts with label Unemployment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unemployment. Show all posts
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Avon and Mary Kay has job options
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Armies of new Avon ladies, Mary Kay reps and Tupperware sellers are advancing on living rooms across the country, their ranks full of professionals forced to take a second job amid the recession.
Becke Alexander, sales manager for New York-based Avon Products Inc., hears each week from laid-off bankers and stay-at-home moms, but also gainfully employed people worried how long they’ll stay that way. All of them are willing to knock on doors, host parties or do whatever else it takes to peddle some makeup.
"‘I need money.’ That’s what I’ve been hearing since about November,” Alexander said. "There are no hobby seekers coming here. It’s people with a legitimate need.”
Job cuts, shrinking bonuses and scaled-back hours have pushed more people than ever to become direct sales representatives, a phenomenon industry experts say they’ve seen before.
In the 1990-1991 recession, the number of direct sellers increased 8 percent to 5.1 million Americans. In the 2001 recession, the work force increased to 12.2 million.
And while 2008 figures are not available, in 2007 an estimated 15 million people nationwide were in direct sales. Some 58 percent became reps as a second job, according to the Direct Selling Association, which represents 200 U.S. companies.
Attracting new reps
When money began getting tight in Nicole Robinson’s household in Garland, Texas, the full-time pharmaceutical sales rep signed up to host Mary Kay parties and give facials, working just six hours to make about $600 a week.
"I didn’t want to ever be in a situation where we were in jeopardy,” Robinson said.
Rhonda Shasteen, chief marketing director for Mary Kay, said the Addison, Texas-based company saw traffic on its Web site increase by 108 percent in March, when the company began airing television ads to attract new sales reps.
The sales force grew 22 percent from January to March, compared with the same period last year. The privately owned company wouldn’t say whether its profits also increased during that period.
Orlando, Fla.-based Tupperware Brands said it’s making more money and has more people selling its products, spokeswoman Nora Alonso said.
Direct sales reps can earn commissions between 25 to 50 percent of retail sales, and some companies will also pay for recruiting a sales person.
It costs about $10 to get the Avon starter kit of products and brochures, and some companies require the sales people to purchase products wholesale and then resell them. Mary Kay consultants purchase mascara for $7.50; the company recommends they sell it for twice that.
Companies that are members of the Direct Selling Association are required to have buyback programs where they refund at least 90 percent of costs to sales representatives who get stuck with products.
by the associated press
Becke Alexander, sales manager for New York-based Avon Products Inc., hears each week from laid-off bankers and stay-at-home moms, but also gainfully employed people worried how long they’ll stay that way. All of them are willing to knock on doors, host parties or do whatever else it takes to peddle some makeup.
"‘I need money.’ That’s what I’ve been hearing since about November,” Alexander said. "There are no hobby seekers coming here. It’s people with a legitimate need.”
Job cuts, shrinking bonuses and scaled-back hours have pushed more people than ever to become direct sales representatives, a phenomenon industry experts say they’ve seen before.
In the 1990-1991 recession, the number of direct sellers increased 8 percent to 5.1 million Americans. In the 2001 recession, the work force increased to 12.2 million.
And while 2008 figures are not available, in 2007 an estimated 15 million people nationwide were in direct sales. Some 58 percent became reps as a second job, according to the Direct Selling Association, which represents 200 U.S. companies.
Attracting new reps
When money began getting tight in Nicole Robinson’s household in Garland, Texas, the full-time pharmaceutical sales rep signed up to host Mary Kay parties and give facials, working just six hours to make about $600 a week.
"I didn’t want to ever be in a situation where we were in jeopardy,” Robinson said.
Rhonda Shasteen, chief marketing director for Mary Kay, said the Addison, Texas-based company saw traffic on its Web site increase by 108 percent in March, when the company began airing television ads to attract new sales reps.
The sales force grew 22 percent from January to March, compared with the same period last year. The privately owned company wouldn’t say whether its profits also increased during that period.
Orlando, Fla.-based Tupperware Brands said it’s making more money and has more people selling its products, spokeswoman Nora Alonso said.
Direct sales reps can earn commissions between 25 to 50 percent of retail sales, and some companies will also pay for recruiting a sales person.
It costs about $10 to get the Avon starter kit of products and brochures, and some companies require the sales people to purchase products wholesale and then resell them. Mary Kay consultants purchase mascara for $7.50; the company recommends they sell it for twice that.
Companies that are members of the Direct Selling Association are required to have buyback programs where they refund at least 90 percent of costs to sales representatives who get stuck with products.
by the associated press
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Sustainable careers
NEW YORK — The fledgling renewable energy industry has grown steadily over much of the past decade, adding jobs at more than twice the national rate, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study released Wednesday.
Solar and wind-power companies, energy-efficient light bulb makers, environmental engineering firms and others expanded their work force by 9.1 percent from 1998 to 2007, the latest year available, according to Pew.
The average job growth in all industries was 3.7 percent during the same period.
The entire energy sector has experienced growth in recent years as well, according to the Bureau of Labor. Bureau data shows coal mining jobs jumped 16 percent from 2003 to 2009. Oil and gas extraction jobs jumped 28 percent.
The Pew study does not include employment data from the past 18 months, a volatile period for the energy industry.
Sustainable jobs
Since the data was collected, the government has said it would pump billions into renewable energy and efficiency programs. The banking meltdown made it nearly impossible to raise cash and oil prices have collapsed.
Alternative energy companies have been hit hard by the recession, with a string of bankruptcies in the ethanol industry and layoffs in the wind-power industry.
Lori Grange, Pew’s interim deputy director, said that while green industries will certainly benefit from the influx of billions in stimulus dollars, the report shows that the clean energy sector has proven itself sustainable.
States such as California, Texas, Florida and New York continue to employ the most people in the industry.
However, states experiencing the largest growth rates were Idaho, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, according to the report.
Michigan, which has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, saw a 10.7 percent increase in clean energy jobs from 1998 to 2007.
A shift in direction
That is not to say that clean energy jobs have kept pace with overall job losses.
Pew counted 22,674 clean energy jobs in Michigan in 2007. To put that into perspective, Michigan lost 38,400 jobs in April alone.
Many of the new manufacturing jobs do not pay as well as traditional union jobs, either, yet workers who have made the shift say the industries are moving in different directions.
The Pew jobs data was dominated by environmental engineering firms and other pollution cleanup specialists that have been around for years. But the report showed that the fastest growing areas include companies that make hybrid diesel buses, traffic monitoring software, liquid biofuels, and jobs related to solar and wind energy.
by the associated press
Solar and wind-power companies, energy-efficient light bulb makers, environmental engineering firms and others expanded their work force by 9.1 percent from 1998 to 2007, the latest year available, according to Pew.
The average job growth in all industries was 3.7 percent during the same period.
The entire energy sector has experienced growth in recent years as well, according to the Bureau of Labor. Bureau data shows coal mining jobs jumped 16 percent from 2003 to 2009. Oil and gas extraction jobs jumped 28 percent.
The Pew study does not include employment data from the past 18 months, a volatile period for the energy industry.
Sustainable jobs
Since the data was collected, the government has said it would pump billions into renewable energy and efficiency programs. The banking meltdown made it nearly impossible to raise cash and oil prices have collapsed.
Alternative energy companies have been hit hard by the recession, with a string of bankruptcies in the ethanol industry and layoffs in the wind-power industry.
Lori Grange, Pew’s interim deputy director, said that while green industries will certainly benefit from the influx of billions in stimulus dollars, the report shows that the clean energy sector has proven itself sustainable.
States such as California, Texas, Florida and New York continue to employ the most people in the industry.
However, states experiencing the largest growth rates were Idaho, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, according to the report.
Michigan, which has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, saw a 10.7 percent increase in clean energy jobs from 1998 to 2007.
A shift in direction
That is not to say that clean energy jobs have kept pace with overall job losses.
Pew counted 22,674 clean energy jobs in Michigan in 2007. To put that into perspective, Michigan lost 38,400 jobs in April alone.
Many of the new manufacturing jobs do not pay as well as traditional union jobs, either, yet workers who have made the shift say the industries are moving in different directions.
The Pew jobs data was dominated by environmental engineering firms and other pollution cleanup specialists that have been around for years. But the report showed that the fastest growing areas include companies that make hybrid diesel buses, traffic monitoring software, liquid biofuels, and jobs related to solar and wind energy.
by the associated press
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Unemployed turn
ARLINGTON, Va. — Colleen Delsack is a 47-year-old single mother who can’t seem to find a steady job, and she worries that her age may have something to do with it.
So she joined dozens of other unemployed workers Friday to take advantage of free Botox wrinkle injections offered by a Virginia clinic.
"Age is a handicap,” said Delsack, whose home has gone into foreclosure in the 18 months since she lost her job as an account executive with a printing and document-management company.
"There’s so much competition,” she said while waiting to receive about a half-dozen small injections to ease fine lines around her eyes and on her forehead. "And we’re up against kids coming out of college and not making the salaries that we’ve had.”
Delsack isn’t the only one feeling apprehensive about her age in the workplace. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it received 24,582 complaints of age discrimination in the 12-month period ending in September. That’s a 29 percent increase from the previous year.
"We can’t say for sure why everything is up across the board, but we have a few guesses, one being economic conditions,” commission spokeswoman Christine Saah Nazer said. She noted that complaints generally intensify when the job market deteriorates.
The number of Americans looking for work continues to climb.
The Labor Department announced Friday that employers cut 345,000 jobs in May. While fewer than economists projected, the unemployment rate surged to a higher-than-expected 9.4 percent from 8.9 percent in April.
The growing ranks of the unemployed include Benita Jenkins of Washington, who was among the first in line Friday at the Reveal clinic near the Pentagon to accept the offer of free Botox injections.
Jenkins, who would not reveal her age but appeared to be in her mid- to late 40s, said she was laid off in February from a small nonprofit company where she led a $12 million capital campaign. She has received Botox injections before but had to stop pampering herself when money began running out.
She hopes improving her appearance will help, at least psychologically, in future job interviews.
"This is the longest I’ve ever gone in my life without work,” Jenkins said.
Botox, which paralyzes muscles to make lines fade, is the No. 1 minimally invasive cosmetic procedure in the U.S., according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. More than 5 million treatments were done last year.
Job recruiter Laura Baker said doing well on a job interview, regardless of age, is all about exuding confidence. "It’s important when you’re feeling down to treat yourself, to get a pick-me-up,” said Baker, who works with the headhunting company Friends & Co.
"Whether it’s Botox or something else, it’s that fresh approach you need.”
by the associated press
So she joined dozens of other unemployed workers Friday to take advantage of free Botox wrinkle injections offered by a Virginia clinic.
"Age is a handicap,” said Delsack, whose home has gone into foreclosure in the 18 months since she lost her job as an account executive with a printing and document-management company.
"There’s so much competition,” she said while waiting to receive about a half-dozen small injections to ease fine lines around her eyes and on her forehead. "And we’re up against kids coming out of college and not making the salaries that we’ve had.”
Delsack isn’t the only one feeling apprehensive about her age in the workplace. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it received 24,582 complaints of age discrimination in the 12-month period ending in September. That’s a 29 percent increase from the previous year.
"We can’t say for sure why everything is up across the board, but we have a few guesses, one being economic conditions,” commission spokeswoman Christine Saah Nazer said. She noted that complaints generally intensify when the job market deteriorates.
The number of Americans looking for work continues to climb.
The Labor Department announced Friday that employers cut 345,000 jobs in May. While fewer than economists projected, the unemployment rate surged to a higher-than-expected 9.4 percent from 8.9 percent in April.
The growing ranks of the unemployed include Benita Jenkins of Washington, who was among the first in line Friday at the Reveal clinic near the Pentagon to accept the offer of free Botox injections.
Jenkins, who would not reveal her age but appeared to be in her mid- to late 40s, said she was laid off in February from a small nonprofit company where she led a $12 million capital campaign. She has received Botox injections before but had to stop pampering herself when money began running out.
She hopes improving her appearance will help, at least psychologically, in future job interviews.
"This is the longest I’ve ever gone in my life without work,” Jenkins said.
Botox, which paralyzes muscles to make lines fade, is the No. 1 minimally invasive cosmetic procedure in the U.S., according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. More than 5 million treatments were done last year.
Job recruiter Laura Baker said doing well on a job interview, regardless of age, is all about exuding confidence. "It’s important when you’re feeling down to treat yourself, to get a pick-me-up,” said Baker, who works with the headhunting company Friends & Co.
"Whether it’s Botox or something else, it’s that fresh approach you need.”
by the associated press
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Jobless rate
WASHINGTON — With companies in no mood to hire, the unemployment rate jumped to 9.4 percent in May, the highest in more than 25 years. But the pace of layoffs eased, with employers cutting 345,000 jobs, the fewest since September.
The much smaller-than-expected reduction in payroll jobs, reported by the Labor Department on Friday, adds to evidence the recession is loosening its hold on the country.
It marked the fourth straight month that the pace of layoffs slowed, officials said.
"This tide is turning,” said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. "We expect this trend of slower job loss to continue throughout the year.”
Still, the increase in the nation’s unemployment rate from 8.9 percent in April underscores the difficulties that America’s 14.5 million unemployed are having in finding new jobs. Economists had expected the rate to hit 9.2 percent last month.
If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.4 percent in May, the highest on records dating to 1994.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis called the rise in May’s unemployment rate "unacceptable” and pledged to help bring it down by aiding the unemployed get new skills or training.
Few new hires
President Barack Obama’s stimulus package is expected to help bolster the economy. Vice President Joe Biden said he will join Obama on Monday in seeking to ramp up the pace this summer of the stimulus effort that Congress approved earlier this year.
Even with layoffs slowing, companies will be reluctant to hire until they feel certain that economic conditions are improving and that any recovery will last.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 6 million jobs.
The average work week in May fell to 33.1 hours, the lowest on records dating to 1964.
The number of people out of work six months or longer rose to more than 3.9 million in May, triple the amount from when the recession began.
by the associated press
The much smaller-than-expected reduction in payroll jobs, reported by the Labor Department on Friday, adds to evidence the recession is loosening its hold on the country.
It marked the fourth straight month that the pace of layoffs slowed, officials said.
"This tide is turning,” said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. "We expect this trend of slower job loss to continue throughout the year.”
Still, the increase in the nation’s unemployment rate from 8.9 percent in April underscores the difficulties that America’s 14.5 million unemployed are having in finding new jobs. Economists had expected the rate to hit 9.2 percent last month.
If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.4 percent in May, the highest on records dating to 1994.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis called the rise in May’s unemployment rate "unacceptable” and pledged to help bring it down by aiding the unemployed get new skills or training.
Few new hires
President Barack Obama’s stimulus package is expected to help bolster the economy. Vice President Joe Biden said he will join Obama on Monday in seeking to ramp up the pace this summer of the stimulus effort that Congress approved earlier this year.
Even with layoffs slowing, companies will be reluctant to hire until they feel certain that economic conditions are improving and that any recovery will last.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 6 million jobs.
The average work week in May fell to 33.1 hours, the lowest on records dating to 1964.
The number of people out of work six months or longer rose to more than 3.9 million in May, triple the amount from when the recession began.
by the associated press
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Unemployment up to 8.5 Pecent
Unemployment zoomed to 8.5 percent last month, the highest in a quarter-century, as employers axed 663,000 more workers and pushed the nation's jobless ranks past 13 million. The hard times were only expected to get harder — a painful 10 percent jobless rate before long.
The current rate would be even higher — 15.6 percent — if it included laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have had to settle for part-time work because they can't do any better. That's the highest on record for that number in figures that go back to 1994.
"Even if the economy continues to show signs of improvement, businesses will cut jobs and trim fats to stay lean and mean," said Sung Won Sohn, economist at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University, Channel Islands.
So far, the public has shown great hopes for the economic policies of new President Barack Obama. But those could fade quickly with more months of layoffs. In Europe for an economic summit, Obama called Friday's unemployment report a "stark reminder" of a need for action at home and abroad.
The recession may well end later this year — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and many private analysts see that possibility — but rehiring historically doesn't get going until after an economic recovery is picking up steam. The jobless rate is expected to reach 10 percent by year's end.
The stock market generally bottoms out before a recovery gets under way, too, and stocks now have risen for four straight weeks.
The Dow Jones industrials rose 39.51 points on Friday after surging 216 points on Thursday and closed above 8,000 for the first time in nearly two months.
Small comfort to millions of laid-off workers. The Labor Department report underscored the recession's toll: a spike in the jobless rate from February's 8.1 percent and a net loss of 5.1 million jobs since December 2007, almost two-thirds of them in just the past five months. And economists say an additional 2.4 million jobs will disappear through the first quarter of next year.
As the downturn eats into companies' sales and profits, they are laying off workers and resorting to other cost-saving survival measures that also hit employees, the report showed. Those include holding down hours and freezing or cutting pay.
"It's an ugly report, and April is going to be equally as bad," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "I couldn't see any rays of sunshine. Nothing."
The average work week in March dropped to 33.2 hours, a record low. And nearly a quarter of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more, the highest proportion since the steep 1981-82 recession.
Margaret Barnett, 55, of Villa Rica, Ga., knows about that. She has been looking for work since she was laid off from a plastics distributor when the recession began in December 2007. She checks job listings every day at an employment agency and thumbs through the classified section of the local newspaper. But no luck.
"It's more people advertising that they need work than people hiring," Barnett said.
And hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans soon will exhaust their unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. Congress extended benefits twice last year to a total of 46 to 59 weeks.
Many who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs are seeing their paychecks shrink.
Average weekly earnings declined to $614.20 in March from $615.05 in February. If earnings keep falling, that would give consumers another reason to pull back spending, which would further weaken the economy.
But there have been some positive economic signs recently. Orders placed with U.S. factories actually rose in February, ending six straight months of declines, the government reported Thursday. Earlier in the week, there were better-than-expected reports on construction spending and pending home sales.
And last week a report showed that consumer spending — an engine of the economy — rose in February for the second month in a row — after a half-year of declines.
Still, there was plenty of bad news in the details of the new report. For example, January's job losses were revised much higher, to 741,000 from 655,000, making them the worst in a single month since 1949.
In March, the number of unemployed people climbed to 13.2 million. The number of people forced to work part time for "economic reasons" rose by 423,000 to 9 million. Those are people who would like to work full time but whose hours were cut back or who were unable to find full-time work.
Most economists expect monthly job losses to continue for most if not all of this year.
However, they are expecting that reductions in the current quarter won't be as deep as the roughly 685,000 average monthly job losses in the January-March period.
Job losses were widespread last month. Construction companies cut 126,000. Factories axed 161,000. Retailers cut nearly 50,000. Professional and business services eliminated 133,000. Leisure and hospitality cut 40,000. Even the government cut jobs — 5,000 of them.
Education and health care were among the few industries showing any job gains.
There was more bad news for workers in service industries — hotels, retail, health care and such. An index of services activity shrank for a sixth straight month, according to the Institute for Supply Management, a Tempe, Ariz.-based trade group of purchasing executives.
Bernanke said the recession could end later this year, setting the stage for recovery, if the government is successful in bolstering the banking system. Banks have been clobbered by the worst housing, credit and financial crises to hit the country since the 1930s.
The Fed chief said Friday he expects to see a "gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth." But he didn't say when.
To brace the economy, the Fed has slashed a key bank lending rate to an all-time low and has embarked on a series of radical programs to inject billions of dollars into the financial system.
And the Obama administration has launched a multi-pronged strategy to turn the economy around. Its $787 billion stimulus package includes money that will flow to states for public works projects, help them defray budget cuts, extend unemployment benefits and boost food stamp benefits.
Still, skittish employers announced more job layoffs this week.
3M Co., the maker of Scotch tape, Post-It Notes and other products, said it was cutting 1,200 more jobs. Health care products distributor Cardinal Health Inc. said it would eliminate 1,300 positions. Semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. said it would cut about 600. And Caterpillar said it was speeding up layoffs — cutting more than 1,000 jobs at an Illinois plant two weeks ahead of schedule.
"The philosophy seems to be cut massively now and ask questions about whether too much has been done later," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.
by Associated Press.
The current rate would be even higher — 15.6 percent — if it included laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have had to settle for part-time work because they can't do any better. That's the highest on record for that number in figures that go back to 1994.
"Even if the economy continues to show signs of improvement, businesses will cut jobs and trim fats to stay lean and mean," said Sung Won Sohn, economist at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University, Channel Islands.
So far, the public has shown great hopes for the economic policies of new President Barack Obama. But those could fade quickly with more months of layoffs. In Europe for an economic summit, Obama called Friday's unemployment report a "stark reminder" of a need for action at home and abroad.
The recession may well end later this year — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and many private analysts see that possibility — but rehiring historically doesn't get going until after an economic recovery is picking up steam. The jobless rate is expected to reach 10 percent by year's end.
The stock market generally bottoms out before a recovery gets under way, too, and stocks now have risen for four straight weeks.
The Dow Jones industrials rose 39.51 points on Friday after surging 216 points on Thursday and closed above 8,000 for the first time in nearly two months.
Small comfort to millions of laid-off workers. The Labor Department report underscored the recession's toll: a spike in the jobless rate from February's 8.1 percent and a net loss of 5.1 million jobs since December 2007, almost two-thirds of them in just the past five months. And economists say an additional 2.4 million jobs will disappear through the first quarter of next year.
As the downturn eats into companies' sales and profits, they are laying off workers and resorting to other cost-saving survival measures that also hit employees, the report showed. Those include holding down hours and freezing or cutting pay.
"It's an ugly report, and April is going to be equally as bad," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "I couldn't see any rays of sunshine. Nothing."
The average work week in March dropped to 33.2 hours, a record low. And nearly a quarter of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more, the highest proportion since the steep 1981-82 recession.
Margaret Barnett, 55, of Villa Rica, Ga., knows about that. She has been looking for work since she was laid off from a plastics distributor when the recession began in December 2007. She checks job listings every day at an employment agency and thumbs through the classified section of the local newspaper. But no luck.
"It's more people advertising that they need work than people hiring," Barnett said.
And hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans soon will exhaust their unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. Congress extended benefits twice last year to a total of 46 to 59 weeks.
Many who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs are seeing their paychecks shrink.
Average weekly earnings declined to $614.20 in March from $615.05 in February. If earnings keep falling, that would give consumers another reason to pull back spending, which would further weaken the economy.
But there have been some positive economic signs recently. Orders placed with U.S. factories actually rose in February, ending six straight months of declines, the government reported Thursday. Earlier in the week, there were better-than-expected reports on construction spending and pending home sales.
And last week a report showed that consumer spending — an engine of the economy — rose in February for the second month in a row — after a half-year of declines.
Still, there was plenty of bad news in the details of the new report. For example, January's job losses were revised much higher, to 741,000 from 655,000, making them the worst in a single month since 1949.
In March, the number of unemployed people climbed to 13.2 million. The number of people forced to work part time for "economic reasons" rose by 423,000 to 9 million. Those are people who would like to work full time but whose hours were cut back or who were unable to find full-time work.
Most economists expect monthly job losses to continue for most if not all of this year.
However, they are expecting that reductions in the current quarter won't be as deep as the roughly 685,000 average monthly job losses in the January-March period.
Job losses were widespread last month. Construction companies cut 126,000. Factories axed 161,000. Retailers cut nearly 50,000. Professional and business services eliminated 133,000. Leisure and hospitality cut 40,000. Even the government cut jobs — 5,000 of them.
Education and health care were among the few industries showing any job gains.
There was more bad news for workers in service industries — hotels, retail, health care and such. An index of services activity shrank for a sixth straight month, according to the Institute for Supply Management, a Tempe, Ariz.-based trade group of purchasing executives.
Bernanke said the recession could end later this year, setting the stage for recovery, if the government is successful in bolstering the banking system. Banks have been clobbered by the worst housing, credit and financial crises to hit the country since the 1930s.
The Fed chief said Friday he expects to see a "gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth." But he didn't say when.
To brace the economy, the Fed has slashed a key bank lending rate to an all-time low and has embarked on a series of radical programs to inject billions of dollars into the financial system.
And the Obama administration has launched a multi-pronged strategy to turn the economy around. Its $787 billion stimulus package includes money that will flow to states for public works projects, help them defray budget cuts, extend unemployment benefits and boost food stamp benefits.
Still, skittish employers announced more job layoffs this week.
3M Co., the maker of Scotch tape, Post-It Notes and other products, said it was cutting 1,200 more jobs. Health care products distributor Cardinal Health Inc. said it would eliminate 1,300 positions. Semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. said it would cut about 600. And Caterpillar said it was speeding up layoffs — cutting more than 1,000 jobs at an Illinois plant two weeks ahead of schedule.
"The philosophy seems to be cut massively now and ask questions about whether too much has been done later," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.
by Associated Press.
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