“Why Aren’t Companies Hiring?” Part II

The economic weakness that accelerated in the latter months of 2008 and into 2009 played out in a very “tricky” fashion. Very few mainstream economists foresaw what would happen.  A testament to the complexity of the situation as 2008 progressed was the business shows airing arguments during the summer as to whether the economy was even in …

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“Why Aren’t Companies Hiring?” Part I

“As unemployment approaches 10%, what is less well publicized is that the number of “underutilized” workers in the U.S. has increased dramatically from 15 to 30 million. Those without jobs, as well as those individuals who only work part-time and have become discouraged and stopped looking, total 30 MILLION people. The number is staggering.” -Bill …

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An Interesting Chart on Job Losses

I ran across the following chart from chartoftheday.com, and found it interesting: http://www.chartoftheday.com/20090703.htm?T As one can see, the current degree of job losses is rather atypical. I would also like to highlight another issue as well.  From a historical perspective, this (purported) recession, that the NBER has classified as having started in December 2007, is …

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“Jobless Recovery”

It seems as if more and more economic forecasters believe that the economy will progressively get better by year-end, but that employment will lag considerably.  Often the “jobless recovery” theme is either overtly mentioned or at least hinted. Can such a “jobless recovery” exist, given the current level of indebtedness at the personal, municipal, state and …

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