Employment Situation in U.S. Just Getting Worse

In a sign of the times that is the rough equivalent of employment market Armageddon, the U.S. military is cutting jobs  by closing a base. That ties in with the overall economic picture in the country, where unemployment claims rose recently to the highest level they have been in six months. And, lest the significance be lost on anyone, when the U.S. federal government starts cutting jobs, it is truly a sign of bad things, because every bureaucrat, politician and appointee fights tooth and nail to avoid any cuts anywhere and, generally speaking have the authority to override the will of the people merely by wanting it to be so.

First-time jobless claims rose by 2,000 during the most recent period, to a seasonally-adjusted 484,000, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Those claims have risen over three of the past four months and the aggregate number sites just below the yearly high of 490,000, which was reached in late January. New hiring, at 12,000 new jobs, was not nearly enough to make the unemployment rate nationwide budge, and it still sits at 9.5%. At present, the situation looks even more bleak given that companies appear to be poised to lay off workers rather than hire new ones.

There is quite a bit of conjecture regarding the reason for the dropoffs, with one theory being that state and local governments – just below the federal government in terms of offering job security – has reduced jobs by a whopping 48,000 in July. Others contend that small companies and laying off workers or not hiring new ones because of the terrible credit crunch that is making it nearly impossible for businesses to invest in capital and new employees. In short, until credit becomes more widely available, there is little to no chance that the employment situation is going to improve. Presumably, one of the millions of federal government employees at one of the countless agencies is going to figure this out (eventually) and something will be done.