unemployment

ADP Employment Report - Another Yellow Weed

ADP is the largest private payroll, outsourced HR company and they have been so gracious to tabulate up employment estimates from being in this business.

Their May employment report has some not so great news.

Nonfarm private employment decreased 532,000 from April to May 2009 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment Report®. The estimated change of
employment from March to April was revised by 54,000, from a decline of 491,000 to a decline of 545,000.

Monthly employment losses in April and May averaged 539,000. This is a notable improvement over the first three months of the year, when monthly losses averaged 691,000.

We're Sorry, 8% Permanent Unemployment is not Acceptable!

Imagine my disgust at this headline: New Normal of 2% GDP Growth where experts are claiming America just had to get used to it with permanent 8% unemployment numbers.

Americans may have to get used to unemployment greater than 8 percent for the first time since 1983 and an economy that won’t grow much beyond 2 percent as a consequence of the lost confidence in consumer credit that shattered financial markets.

Who is saying this? Pimco, the biggest bond trader and it's co-founder, Bill Gross, who is becoming more powerful by the day.

I'm sorry Pimco but that is unacceptable and we really do not care what full employment does to your portfolio.

Employers - Please Help Our Children to get a Job

In Help Us! Our kids need jobs outlines the story of more and more adult kids, with degrees in many cases, living at home with their parents, unable to find a job. Parents are asking employers to help their kids.

So, do these employers help their kids? Hell no. They give them outplacement services, which is a bunch of advice, but no job!

Other parents are asking their companies’ employee-assistance providers for job-finding help for their kids. ComPsych, Chicago, is fielding a growing number of requests from parents seeking outplacement services for young adult children, a spokeswoman says. While ComPsych doesn’t offer those services in such cases, it does provide financial planning and counseling help.

But what is interesting is the age group 18-34, 34% of all children are living with their parents.

Jobless claims "less bad" at 601,000

The BLS reported this morning that new jobless claims declined to 601,000 in the last week. That is the lowest reading since January. The 4 week moving average also declined to 637,000. According to the research reported by Prof. James Hamilton, this decline means that it is more likely than not that the recession will ultimately be deemed to have ended by the end of June.

Horrible March State Unemployment Numbers Out

BLS has released March unemployment for states, and they are bad. Really bad. The 10% club has a new member: Indiana. And five other states will are close to joining the club: Florida (9.7%), Kentucky (9.8%),Mississippi (9.4%), Ohio(9.7%), and Tennessee (9.6%).

With the exception of Florida, it's clear what is driving up unemployment in these states. It's hard times in the auto industry.

In addition to its finding that a bankruptcy-related shutdown of the U.S. motor vehicle industry could cost up to 3.3 million U.S. jobs, this study finds:

Highest Jobless Claims Ever - New Record

We have a new record on jobless claims:

New claims for unemployment benefits last week rose to a seasonally adjusted 652,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 644,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The total number of people claiming benefits jumped to 5.56 million, worse than economists' projections of 5.48 million, a ninth straight record and the highest total on records dating back to 1967.

and.....they had to revise last months 6.2% drop in GDP to 6.3%:

The dismal job news is one indicator of the overall economic pain Americans have endured early in the new year. The Commerce Department said Thursday that the economy shrank at a 6.3 percent annual pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, and a bit faster than the 6.2 percent drop estimated a month ago

DOL Jobless claims indicate the U.S. is bleeding jobs

The DOL has released Unemployment weekly claims.

New claims jumped to 667,000. That's just unreal and the increase from last week is 36,000

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Feb. 14 was 5,112,000, an increase of 114,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,998,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,932,250, an increase of 89,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 4,843,000.

We're bleeding jobs!

We are not hitting the worst rates since 1982 and if anyone recalls this was the time period when interest rates were put on 20% range to stop stagflation, which of course caused an immediate deep recession in the readjustment period.

How Bankers Profit From Other's Unemployment

Jobless hit with bank fees on benefits

For hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs during the recession, there's a new twist to their financial pain: Even as they're collecting unemployment benefits, they're paying bank fees just to get access to their money.

Thirty states have struck such deals with banks that include Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase and US Bancorp, an Associated Press review of the agreements found. All the programs carry fees, and in several states the unemployed have no choice but to use the debit cards. Some banks even charge overdraft fees of up to $20 — even though they could decline charges for more than what's on the card.

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