As Jobless Claims Continue Falling, Employment Improves...

Good News on the Job Front...

The United States is just 120,000 jobs away from recovering all losses from the Great Recession!

The True Unemployment Rate Is...

Under President Obama, Food Stamp Growth is 75 Times Greater Than Job Creation

Family-Controlled Business Account for 78% of All New Jobs...

The Longest Job Slump Since The Great Depression Continues...

For Each Job Opening, Four Are Unemployed...

Job Woes & Housing Distress Inextricably Linked...

Although U.S. employers hired a net 39,000 workers in November 2010, the nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.8%, equal to 15.1 million out-of-work Americans.


Through the first 10 months of calendar year 2010, 909,487 homes have been seized by lenders as a result of foreclosure, an average of 2,992 per day.  At that pace, 1.1 million homes will be repossessed during calendar year 2010.


Sources: Department of Labor and RealtyTrac

Why Market Risk May Be Higher Than You Think: Reason #5 of 5...

5. The jobs picture is much worse than they're telling you.

Forget the "official" unemployment rate of 9.5%. Alternative measures? Try this: Just 61% of the adult population, age 20 or over, has any kind of job right now. That's the lowest since the early 1980s—when many women stayed at home through choice, driving the numbers down. Among men today, it's 66.9%. And many of those still working right now can only find part-time work, so just 59% of men age 20 or over currently have a full-time job.

This is bullish?

Chart Of The Day: Nonfarm Payroll Show Largest Increase in 3 Years

 Chart & Analysis Courtesy of ChartOfTheDay.com 

On Friday April 2nd, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) increased by 162,000 in March -- the largest increase in three years.

Today's chart puts that decline into perspective by comparing job losses following the beginning of the current economic recession (solid red line) to that of the last recession (dashed gold line) and the average recession from 1950-1999 (dashed blue line).

As today's chart illustrates, the current job market has suffered losses that are more than triple as much as what occurs at the lows of the average recession/job loss cycle.

It is also worth noting that previous job market declines did not tend to end abruptly but rather flattened out before moving back into an expansionary phase.

Today's relatively positive jobs report provides an early indication that the current job market is moving from a phase of stabilization to that of expansion.

Chart of The Day - Job Growth Plunges in the 2000s Decade

Chart Courtesy of ChartofTheDay.com

On Friday, January 8, 2010, the U.S. Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) decreased by 85,000 in December while the data for November was revised upward and now shows a gain of 4,000 jobs.

For some perspective, the chart herein illustrates the percent increase in the number of jobs for every decade since the 1940s (the data goes back to 1939).

As today's chart illustrates, the number of jobs at the end of a decade has been anywhere from +20% to +38% greater than 10 years prior.

That +20% plus growth has been the case until the decade just passed during which the number of jobs basically ended the year where it began.

This subpar job growth is particularly noteworthy due to the fact that the U.S. population has increased by +10% in addition to a significant increase in global wealth during the same time frame.

Chart of The Day - Job Losses Are Over 3 Times The Average Trough

Chart and analysis courtesy of www.ChartOfTheDay.com

Today, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) decreased by 11,000 in November -- the smallest decline since the recession began at the close of 2007.

Today's chart puts that decline into perspective by comparing job losses during the current economic recession (solid red line) to that of the last recession (dashed gold line) and the average recession from 1950-2006 (dashed blue line).

As today's chart illustrates, the current job market has suffered losses that are more than triple as much as what occurs at the lows of the average recession/job loss cycle.