The Discarded

soupsoup: femmebot: John Morefield is one of thousands of...

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:23:08 -0500

femmebot:

John Morefield is one of thousands of unemployed designers who are reinventing themselves. Last year, he put up a booth at a farmers’ market in Seattle, advertising his skills for a nickel, and ended up earning more than $50,000 in commissions.

Out-of-Work Architects Turn to Other Skills - NYTimes.com

jakelodwick: “Are You Unemployed?” Funny/sad video from...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:17:59 -0500

jakelodwick:

“Are You Unemployed?”

Funny/sad video from Mint.com.

Via TechCrunch.

UNEMPLOYMENT RISES.

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:34:13 -0400

the405club:

This week’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report has been released. Initial claims rose to 531,000. I would have added “Unexpectedly” to the title, but most analysts were expecting a small increase. This topped the Bloomberg estimates of 510k to 525k, so I should perhaps revise that to simply state that analysts were expecting a small change in either direction. Last week’s number was revised up 6,000 to 520k. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a week revised lower for a change? Sigh. From the report:

In the week ending Oct. 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 531,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 520,000. The 4-week moving average was 532,250, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 533,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.5 percent for the week ending Oct. 10, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s revised rate of 4.6 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Oct. 10 was 5,923,000, a decrease of 98,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,021,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,030,750, a decrease of 59,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 6,090,000.

This is a pretty clear break from the trend we were all hoping would continue. It’s still reasonable to expect some continued moderation in initial claims. This is an economic history argument — the biggest layoffs always occur earlier in the cycle. Unfortunately, that’s not the same thing as saying things will get better (just less bad). Also, as we head into November, there’s a good chance that the seasonal adjustments will mislead. Stores are trying to bring shoppers in early. Surveys show that shoppers are planning on getting their shopping started early, presumably to spread out the pain (not actually a winning strategy for credit card purchases). The same surveys show that overall spending will be reduced from last year. If this is the case, hiring will be less bulge-shaped. This will transition from positively to negatively impacting continuing claims until after Christmas. At that point, the initial claims will be over-revised, and reality will be worse than reported. This is because the seasonal adjustments will assume a greater fall after the traditional big bulge. We’ll have plenty of warning in advance. Look for headlines lamenting reduced seasonal hiring (or rejoicing in earlier seasonal hiring).

This is all to say that once again, we enter a period where traditional hiring/firing patterns are slightly off (last year also introduced anomalies, so maybe there’s some cancellation). As a consequence, it continues to be important to also consider the unadjusted numbers. No smoothing here, so be careful to draw too many conclusions:

With the above setup, you’ll hopefully accept that I will now slowly exhale a sigh of relief in response to this report. A decrease of 49k should be appreciated, even if it was adjusted away (and then some). This is slightly mitigated by the fact that last week’s increase was greater in magnitude. I’ll aim for something more statistically significant. In the next month we should see the unadjusted initial claims number drop below where it was the prior year. That’s only happened once during this recession.

Let’s look at the good / bad lists. Absolutely no good news here, but remember that this data is a week older.

The good list (-1000 or more): CA

The bad list (+1000 or more): MI, SC, OR, PA, MO, GA, TX, WA, KY, IA, KS, MD, IL, AR, IN, WI, NY, FL

FL (the worst) was +9,976 vs CA (the best) at -7,062. Manufacturing, construction, trade, and service were all well represented in the bad list.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 460,449 in the week ending Oct. 17, a decrease of 49,113 from the previous week. There were 416,111 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.7 percent during the week ending Oct. 10, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,898,174, a decrease of 44,913 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.3 percent and the volume was 3,134,390.

There was no progress on passage of the unemployment extension bill. Al Franken appears to be trying to gather media support, but the tone of the editorials on the subject has turned negative. Multiple articles argue that it will now take some sort of shock to get the bill passed. This is unfortunate, because expiring benefits don’t manifest themselves well in official statistics. People with expired benefits sort of disappear. Associated numbers aren’t that likely to deliver a shock. There’s less likely to be a big jobs loss number for the simple reason that we already lost the jobs. Foreclosures and bankruptcies will continue to climb, but there’s not likely to be a spike. The absolute numbers for any metric that measures suffering should get worse, but I’m not sure that any will be shocking. I’m hoping that the editorial tone doesn’t accurately reflect the political situation. This is still the most important short term issue for the unemployed. The long term issue, no engine for jobs growth, hasn’t changed.

-By crazynutjob.

Read all of crazynutjob’s unemployment report recaps here.

6.3 Unemployed Americans Now Compete For Every Job Opening

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:07:11 -0400

6.3 Unemployed Americans Now Compete For Every Job Opening

Record Long-Term Jobless Woes - The Daily Beast

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:04:16 -0400

Record Long-Term Jobless Woes - The Daily Beast:

For millions of people across the nation, it’s ridiculously hard to find a job. In September, 35.6 percent of America’s jobless had been unemployed for six months or longer—a record 5.4 million people. The longer these people remain out of work, USA Today writes, the harder it will be to get a job as skills fade and resume gaps widen. Many of the long-term unemployed, particularly the elderly, won’t ever go back to work, or will have to accept pay cuts and lower-level jobs. Not to mention that the continuous need for aid is taxing the nation’s social services and charities. Large numbers of long-term unemployed can reduce productivity and consumer spending even after economic recovery. Nationwide reluctance to hire until the economy is on firm footing has intensified the problem, as have low housing prices, which discourage the long-term unemployed from selling their homes and moving to areas with more jobs.

Read it at USA Today

Most Dismal Unemployment Numbers Ever

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:58:49 -0400

Most Dismal Unemployment Numbers Ever:

While the consensus among experts is that the recession is coming to an end, the job market is still historically bad with little hope for a quick turnaround. The ratio of those seeking a job versus the number of job openings available is now six to one, the worst since the government began keeping track of the statistic in 2000. Some 14.5 million people are officially unemployed and it may be some time before the employment picture improves. “There’s too much uncertainty out there,” a labor economist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, told The New York Times. “There’s not going to be an upsurge in job openings for quite a while, not until employers feel confident the economy is really growing.”

Read it at The New York Times

Love Trumped Money

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:08:42 -0400

Love Trumped Money:

A year ago, when the financial system melted down, many predicted that Wall Street’s cash-fueled relationships would, too. But Abby Ellin, who writes for The New York Times “Vows” column, reports a funny thing happened on the way to divorce court: Love won over…

America Out of Work: Is Double-Digit Unemployment Here to Stay? - TIME

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:16:14 -0400

America Out of Work: Is Double-Digit Unemployment Here to Stay? - TIME:

It was not a lesson Lawrence Summers mastered with great ease. But after nearly a decade working beside sphinxlike Alan Greenspan, and having watched his own tenure as president of Harvard cut short by a phrase that slipped too nimbly from brain to mouth, Summers, director of the President’s National Economic Council, has become a restrained public man. Gone are the days when he would glibly compare flailing financial markets to jet crashes, as he did to TIME in 1999. He is mindful of how ill-considered asides by policymakers can cause financial-market angina. So you can probably imagine the ripple that ran through the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington in July when Summers looked up from his prepared speech, flashed a grin and loosed the sort of utterance that once upon a time marked imminent indiscretion. “There was,” he told the room, “a fight about whether I was allowed to say this now that I work in the White House…

Interactive Map: The Economy Where You Live The fallout from the...

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:00:18 -0400

Interactive Map: The Economy Where You Live

The fallout from the recession has cut deeply into the housing security, employment and income of many Americans. But some parts of the country are clearly faring better than others. Here, three interactive maps show foreclosure and jobless rates as well as household income by county.

Interactive Map: The Economy Where You Live

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:56:57 -0400

Interactive Map: The Economy Where You Live:

Jobless rate tops 12% in 5 states California, Nevada and Rhode...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:39:17 -0400

Jobless rate tops 12% in 5 states

California, Nevada and Rhode Island hit record-high unemployment rates, Labor Department says. (link)

New York City Unemployment Rises to 10.3 Percent

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:30:30 -0400

New York City Unemployment Rises to 10.3 Percent:

Continuing layoffs on Wall Street drove New York City’s unemployment rate to 10.3 percent in August, a 16-year high that underscores the need to retrain former financial services workers for other jobs, state officials said Thursday.

Bernanke: The Recession Is Over

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:22:09 -0400

Bernanke: The Recession Is Over:

That’s it. The recession is over, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. “From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point,” Bernanke said on Tuesday. But unemployment will “be slow to come down—it will come down, but it may take some time.” He went on to say that economic forecasters expect economic growth to be relatively slow in 2010 because of “moderate headwinds” like financial and credit problems and families’ desire to pay off debts. One key aspect of the economic recovery is reform of financial regulation, a move that Bernanke said he is “quite confident” is coming.

Read it at MarketWatch

10 Jobs for the Recession

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:16:51 -0400

10 Jobs for the Recession

Poverty Rate at 11-Year High

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:52:24 -0400

Poverty Rate at 11-Year High:

New stats on the recession’s impact on poverty over the last year are out and, not surprisingly, they’re looking grim. According to Census Bureau numbers released on Thursday, the poverty rate jumped to an 11-year high in 2008, incomes fell across the board, and the ranks of the uninsured rose to 46.3 million, the Los Angeles Times reports. Experts expect the poverty rate, which climbed from 12.5 percent to 13.2 percent from 2007 to 2008, to keep climbing this year and next. Meanwhile, the average unemployment rate of 8.9 percent for the year, compared with 5.8 percent in 2008, is also expected to climb. With 3 million lost jobs since the beginning of 2009, the numbers of uninsured are expected to climb even higher than the currently estimated 50 million, as people lose their employee health plans.

Read it at Los Angeles Times

Out of Work, and Too Down to Search On

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:25:05 -0400

Out of Work, and Too Down to Search On:

They were left out of the latest unemployment rate, as they are every month: millions of hidden casualties of the Great Recession who are not counted in the rate because they have stopped looking for work…

"By 2007, a full 15 percent of customers told the Self Storage Association they were storing items..."

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:23:24 -0400

“By 2007, a full 15 percent of customers told the Self Storage Association they were storing items that they “no longer need or want.” It was the third-most-popular use for a unit and was projected to grow to 25 percent of renters the following year. The line between necessity and convenience — between temporary life event and permanent lifestyle — totally blurred.”

- The Self-Storage Self - Storing All the Stuff We Accumulate - NYTimes.com (via unconsumption)

A Surge in Homeless Children Tests School Aid Programs

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:52:42 -0400

A Surge in Homeless Children Tests School Aid Programs:

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In the small trailer her family rented over the summer, 9-year-old Charity Crowell picked out the green and purple outfit she would wear on the first day of school. She vowed to try harder and bring her grades back up from the C’s she got last spring — a dismal semester when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family was evicted and migrated through friends’ houses and a motel…

Unemployment Hits 9.7 Percent, Underemployment At 16.8 Percent

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:06:23 -0400

Unemployment Hits 9.7 Percent, Underemployment At 16.8 Percent

Lose Your Job? Follow Your Passion Instead

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:05:05 -0400

Lose Your Job? Follow Your Passion Instead:

Some of the tens-of-thousands of Americans who have lost their jobs in the recession are turning crisis into opportunity. Instead of searching for a new job in the same field, they are turning their passion into a paycheck…