While improvements to the employment picture have been seen in recent months, the unemployment rate is persistently high, and companies are not hiring. Even if job losses slow, the fact that businesses are reluctant to hire more workers continues to cause problems in the overall economy. Only seven states reported that there were job gains in September, and the jobless rate rose to a 26-year high of 9.8%.
Employment is one of the cornerstones of the economy, since the economy relies so much on the ability of people to spend money. Businesses rely on consumer spending to help them with meeting …read more

Sun Microsystems has decided that it will reduce its workforce by 3,000 jobs, or 10 percent of all its employees, because of several delays in its acquisition by Oracle Corp. Even after Oracle completes the acquisition of Sun, though, the company, which has been struggling with declining revenues, expects even more job reductions to occur.
The acquisition of Sun by Oracle was expected to close by the summer, but the deal has hit a snag in the form of European regulators that have been unwilling to approve the merger over fears that the new colossal company would snuff out competition. Sun’s …read more

Florida’s unemployment rate hit 11 percent in September, sending the number of jobless residents of the state to a staggering 1 million for the first time in the state’s history. The state’s unemployment figures marks a 0.2 percent increase from August and are 1.2 percent higher than the national average of 9.8 percent.
October 1975 was the last time that Florida’s jobless rate topped 11 percent. According to the Director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation, Cynthia Lorenzo, the economic recovery is coming slowly. Lorenzo also pointed to the fact that there have been less closings and large-scale layoffs as a …read more

According to the Reuters/University of Michigan index, consumer sentiment fell sharply in October, plunging from 73.5 to 69.4 throughout the course of the month. The result is worse than analysts expected, as the average analyst estimate for the state of consumer sentiment this month was 72.0, signaling that the economy might be more difficult to predict than would be hoped.
September’s consumer sentiment level marked an 8 point jump to its highest level since January 2008 and a moderate decline from that number was expected as a natural part of economic recovery. Analysts say that the drop indicates that the U.S. …read more

As earnings season continues, questions about the economy naturally arise. So far, third quarter earnings have been quite encouraging. And today, the good news continued. JP Morgan reported spectacular third quarter earnings, and that is providing hope that the rest of the financial sector will follow suit. The news has prompted the U.S. stock market to head quite a bit higher, fueling hopes that the Dow will hit 10,000 sometime before the week ends.
But is all of this earnings goodness actually indicative of a better economy? The answer might be no. This is because part of the reason that profits …read more

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard, recently said that he expects unemployment to head unavoidably into double digits and that inflation poses a larger risk than many analysts believe in the medium term. At a time when many Americans are looking for good news related to the economy, Bullard’s statements sadly come as no surprise.
Data released earlier this month confirmed that unemploymet has reached a 26-year-high of 9.8 percent, a staggering figure that has far-reaching rammifications on the economy and on the life of the average American. Bullard’s prediction that unemployment will continue to soar …read more

The National Retail Federation has issued a prediction that may not come as a surprise to many struggling retailers and cash-strapped consumers: holiday retail industry sales will decline this year for a second year in a row. According to the NRF, consumer fears over job security and home values are the main forces that will drive down consumer spending this year.
The trade group’s forecast predicts that sales in the months of November and December will decline about 1 percent from 2008 to $437.6 billion, which would still be a significant improvement over last year’s decline of 3.4 percent. However, these …read more

With more than 15.1 million people out of work in the United States, unemployment reached 9.8% during the month of September — the highest rate in 26 years. And former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said things are going to get worse. On ABC’s This Week, Greenspan predicted that the unemployment rate will surpass 10% and then “stay there for a while before we start down.”
Though he is definitely concerned with the unemployment statistics, Greenspan says a second stimulus plan is not needed now.
“In my judgment it’s far better to wait and see how this momentum that has already begun …read more

After a couple of months of respite on the labor market, September turned out to have been something of a disappointment. Unemployment has hit 9.8%, and jobless claims rose in September. For the most part, the pace of unemployment has been slowing since things reached a high in January. However, September betrayed the fact that there is still weakness with regard to the labor market, and that a jobless recovery is becoming more of a reality.
Some companies are also cutting back hours as they continue to try to save money even while trying to avoid laying off too many workers. …read more

One of the things that the Federal Reserve has done in order to help stimulate the economy is to keep monetary policy rather lax. Interest rates are very low, and Fed chair Ben Bernanke told members of Congress today that they would remain low for an “extended period.” This news means that speculation that the Fed is ready to exit its monetary policies and start shifting gears in an effort to stop inflation due to economic recovery, is a bit premature.
Indeed, there are some concerns that the Fed still has with regard to the economy. Concerns about the economy sliding …read more