1m job losses a month?

[bigbadwolf]

In the Guardian:

Fears of a million layoffs a month in corporate America

As many as a million American jobs could be lost every month by next spring as businesses struggle to raise capital in financial markets consumed by fear, according to a new analysis.

November was the worst month in the US labour market since the oil crisis of 1974, as more than 500,000 US workers were laid off, according to official figures released on Friday.

But Graham Turner, of consultancy GFC Economics, says the rising cost of corporate debt is now flashing a red warning signal that far worse is to come over the next few months and job losses are heading for levels last seen in the 1930s Great Depression.

Incidentally, Graham Turner has an informative book out, titled "The Credit Crunch," which explores the macro- roots of the present, er, situation (recession? incipient depression?). Ah, here is a review of the book.

 

[evil]

a million a month?? only 300 months then till its guaranteed the country is out of work, lol

 

[doug reich]

And only 11 9% down days until there is no market at all.

Actually, the workforce is not the total population of the country, as 1/3 are children or retired. I think the working population is closer to 160-200m people.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The way I understand unemployment number is that it's cumulative i.e if 500K people filed for unemployment benefit in Oct and that number increases to 700K in Nov, that means between Oct and Nov, there are 200K new layoffs.
Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense if each monthly number is new, separate layoff.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Actually, the workforce is not the total population of the country, as 1/3 are children or retired. I think the working population is closer to 160-200m people.

According to the BLS, there are 107m full-time wage and salary workers. So 1m fresh job losses every month makes a sizable dent. To paraphrase Everett Dirksen, a million here and a million there, and pretty soon you're talking about a lot of unemployed people.

We are of course talking about something more than a mere recession, with most of us now crossing our fingers and fervently praying "Let the mother of all depressions not be in my lifetime"; unfortunately this is where we seem to be inexorably headed.