- In Europe and U.S., data shows a murky job outlook, By Matthew Saltmarsh and Peter Goodman, January 8, 2010, New York Times: “The euro area has joined the United States in reaching a 10 percent unemployment rate as the American economy lost more jobs than expected in December, according to statistics released Friday. The latest data tempered hopes in Europe and the United States for a rapid recovery that did not depend on large doses of government support. Before the American report was released, many analysts were predicting that the number of jobs there might increase for the first time since the recession began in December 2007. But the estimated net loss of 85,000 jobs, while a vast improvement over the situation for much of last year, pointed to continued reluctance on the part of employers to hire new workers. In Europe, which typically lags behind the United States, job losses continued to mount as the unemployment rate inched up to 10 percent in November, from 9.9 percent, hitting the highest level since 1998, a year before the euro was created…”
- U.S. job losses in December dim hopes for quick upswing, By Peter S. Goodman, January 8, 2010, New York Times: “The American economy lost another 85,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate remained at 10 percent, setting back hopes for a swift recovery from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. The latest monthly snapshot of the national job market released by the Labor Department on Friday provided one potentially encouraging milestone: Data for November was revised to show that the economy gained 4,000 net jobs that month, in contrast to initial reports showing a loss of 11,000 jobs. That was the first monthly improvement since the recession began two years ago. But the December data failed to repeat the trend, and the report disappointed economists who had generally been expecting a decline of perhaps 10,000 jobs…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty