The still-reeling U.S. private sector lost another 300,000 jobs in August, according to preliminary payroll data released today by ADP, a data processing firm.
If accurate, that figure would push U.S. private sector job losses in the current recession – which is entering its 22nd month – to a whopping 7.2 million. Forecasters had predicted “only” a quarter million job losses in August – which would have been the job market’s “best month” since last September.
Amazingly, state and local governments have actually added jobs during the current recession, although it’s safe to say there’s been a hefty price tag associated with that.
By rick September 2, 2009 at 2:42 pm
No Shit!!!!! What did you expect? You see anything this administration has done to create jobs?
By Eric September 2, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Rick. As a liberal would say, “Obama never said it would work immediately – give it more time.”
By rick September 3, 2009 at 6:52 am
In order to give it time….you first have to do something….and giving money to AIG ain’t doing something.
By BC September 3, 2009 at 7:53 am
The nation’s unemployment rate is a post measure and it will lag in all measures used to determine recovery. Also note, there is always a 4 to 5% consistent of unemployment at anytime in the nation. The affects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is almost like a slow drip merely infusing cash at certain points to drive the economy to rally. It is not an end all be all. It is not intended to solve or fix the economy by itself! It is not a brain child of President Obama but actually a recommendation of top economist to help jolt the economy which it is doing. While the stock market has experienced marginal ups and downs it is mostly rallied these last few months. STOP BEING HATERS! No one start throwing the flag on President Bush until early 2008 within his own party. President Obama has only been “on the job” for 7 going on 8 months and should be given a reasonable amount of time to get the job done!
By Eric September 3, 2009 at 11:01 am
It’s funny how everyone changes what the bailouts were meant to do. When they were first presented the people in favor of the bill were saying, “Oh my God! The economy is exploding the government MUST do something. Doing something even if it screws up everything is better than doing nothing. I can’t say I was part of something and I chose to do nothing.”
Now a year later we are in a worse position than we were before the bailouts. If we had allowed the bubbles to pop naturally we could already be on our road to recovery. Instead we are on our way to a lost decade much like Japan. Actually, since 1999 we aren’t much better.
Also, inflation hides the true performance of the stock market. For instance, you would think Zimbabwe has the best public companies in the world. With Ben Bernanke cranking out fiat money left and right I can assure you we are dealing with inflation right now.