[lbo-talk] employment

[Brad DeLong]

>This morning's U.S. employment report sucked. The survey of 
>employers showed a loss of 93,000 jobs, when flat to slightly up was 
>a reasonable expectation. We've now had seven consecutive months of 
>job loss, something we've never seen outside a recession. The 
>workweek was short and almost every industrial sector shed jobs. The 
>survey of households showed a shrinkage in the labor force - the 
>entire reason for the decline in unemployment from 6.2% to 6.1%. The 
>share of the adult population working was flat, and remains at a low 
>for this cycle. People are buying stuff, but it's not with their 
>paychecks - it's all tax refunds and mortgage refinancing. If the 
>job market doesn't recover soon, we're in trouble.
>
>Doug

Say, rather, that those with unearned incomes or secure job tenures 
on the one hand, and those who lose or fear that they will lose their 
jobs on the other hand, are becoming two nations between whom there 
is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are ignorant of each other's 
habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different 
zones or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by 
different breeding, are fed by different food, are ordered by 
different manners, and are not governed by the same laws...

Brad DeLong