| Two items this morning.
U.S. private sector cuts 697,000 jobs in February
U.S. private sector job losses accelerated in February, according to a report by ADP Employer Services on Wednesday that came in worse than economists' expectations.
ADP said private employers cut 697,000 jobs in February versus a revised 614,000 jobs lost in January. The January job cuts were originally reported at 522,000.
It was the biggest job loss since the report's launch in 2001.
Economists had expected 610,000 private-sector job cuts in February, according to the median of 23 forecasts in a Reuters poll.
Lovely. Now, from the Times (with very cool interactive map):
Job Losses Show Breadth of Recession
What does the worst recession in a generation look like?
It is both deep and broad. Every state in the country, with the exception of a band stretching from the Dakotas down to Texas, is now shedding jobs at a rapid pace. And even that band has recently begun to suffer, because of the sharp fall in both oil and crop prices.
Unlike the last two recessions - earlier this decade and in the early 1990s - this one is causing much more job loss among the less educated than among college graduates. Those earlier recessions introduced the country to the concept of mass white-collar layoffs. The brunt of the layoffs in this recession is falling on construction workers, hotel workers, retail workers and others without a four-year degree.
The Great Recession of 2008 (and beyond) is hurting men more than women. It is hurting homeowners and investors more than renters or retirees who rely on Social Security checks. It is hurting Latinos more than any other ethnic group. A year ago, a greater share of Latinos held jobs than whites. Today, the two have switched places.
If the Great Recession, as some have called it, has a capital city, it is El Centro, Calif., due east of San Diego, in the desert of California's Inland Valley. El Centro has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, a depressionlike 22.6 percent.
Doesn't look like there's much reason for the Joads to go to California anymore. |
