From Bloomberg:
Companies cut 697,000 jobs in the U.S. in February as the recession’s grip tightened, offering no sign the pace of the decline in payrolls is easing.
The drop in the ADP Employer Services gauge, a survey based on payroll data, was larger than economists forecast and followed a revised cut of 614,000 for the prior month.
Employers are cutting staff as demand plummets in the face of strained credit and battered housing and equity markets. The Labor Department may report in two days that employers cut payrolls in February for a 14th consecutive month, putting jobs losses in the current downturn at more than 4.2 million, according to a Bloomberg survey.
“We doubt any of these numbers have hit bottom yet,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics Ltd. in Valhalla, New York, said in a note to clients. “Employment is tanking right across the economy.”
Buckle up. This is going to be a rough ride. If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that high unemployment is going to increase demand for things like health care that you don’t lose when you lose your job. That means next time around, people won’t get hit as hard when the axes start dropping.
woody
Umm.
What makes you think there’s gonna BE a "next time?"
If things work out the way the Rulers want ’em to, there’s not gonna be any next time. Not for "people," or "democracy" or "liberty," or ‘justice" or ANY of those pussy ideas…
just sayin
matt
well…not if the Senate centrists have anything to say about it.
Evan Bayh will ride in on his white horse and save us all from a costly health plan, while at the same time keeping tax cuts for the wealthiest. awesome.
DougJ
Not sure I follow you.
Comrade Stuck
A break in the action. Time for your wingnut logic lesson of the day. From Ace of Spades.
Thank you !. Carry on.
rock
Perhaps just as scary, the idea that this is the "Obama recession" seems to actually be taking hold. It’s completely anecdotal, but the guys at the barbershop in town absolutely buy the Cramer/WSJ/Malkin spin that the market has tanked because of Obama. And they also seem to equate the market and the economy.
I personally doubt that raising the top bracket income tax rate to 39.6 is destroying the economy. But I wouldn’t be shocked it becomes conventional wisdom soon.
John Cole
And guess how the market is reacting to the unemployment numbers. Positively.
We have got to wean ourselves off DOW watching as some indication of economic health. It is killing us.
Dennis-SGMM
It will be an awakening for them when the Republican base is forced to enjoy the rich array of free market health care choices available at their local ER:
"Wait! I demand to choose my own doctor!"
"Shuddup, and take a number before I call Security."
TenguPhule
Good luck on that.
Damming up a river and directing the flow at Wall Street and DC wouldn’t even begin to make dent in the solidified waste.
Punchy
I see a lot of lawns currently in disrepair, so those 697K ought to STFU and buy themselves a mower, a marker, and some giant posterboard. Quit being lazy, losers.
Walker
Our university president is giving a meeting to faculty on Monday. Wonder how much worse it is going to be. We already have to cut 10% from the operating budgets across the board over the next two years.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@rock:
Buck up, my man. Apparently, 84% of Americans realize that Obama inherited this pile of shit. Today’s lesson: ignore the goobers down at the barbershop. Or point at them and laugh. Whatever works.
gwangung
Lucky. We just absorbed a 20% cut in staff. And we’re one of the more protected units….
Napoleon
What kills me is that as a kid in the early 70’s it was a routine observation and the butt of late night comedians jokes that market did well on bad new for average folks. Seriously. It is like today is some bizarro world inverse of how things were were when I was a kid.
zzyzx
But but but… Rush said today that no government employees were getting fired. How could schools be cutting staff?!?!
In some good news, I got an unsolicited email from a M$ contracting recruiter today. I used to get those all the time but I haven’t received any in months. It’s good to know that someone might be hiring at some point.
chrome agnomen
no govt workers were getting fired, because govt workers do not actually have jobs! or is this wisdom now discredited in the neorush era?
HyperIon
@John Cole: I call BS…again.
You and no one else know why the market right now is up or down. Please stop saying this.
Jason
I think he’s using that to CALL BS on one day, if it dropped umpteen points on bad employment news, it shows weakness in the economy.
On another day, it rises on the same type of news, it shows companies are aggressively "getting lean", or that government will be "forced" to act, or that it "ALWAYS" plummets hard before it starts to level off…and then after it levels off…people MAY get jobs again!
So…as J.P Morgan said once, long years ago "The markets, they will fluctuate". And so will the excuses used to justify the movements in it.
paul
Get real! Obama is a piece of shit.
Obama is a fucking Communist!