Jobless Claims Rising At Alarming Rate

Unemployment is the highest since 1982, a record high!

Employers had to let go of about 625,000 workers in the last week of January 2009. In the last 4 weeks, on average, approximately 580,000 people have lost their jobs per week; a staggeringly high number.

Maybe The Beginning Of The End

The potential good news is that this could well be the sharp peak for claims and could mean that the recession is nearer the end then it is to the beginning according to leading economists. Expert thinking is that the sharper the economy falls, the faster it recovers.

Their views are based on historical data but the current economical crisis is much worse than any before. However, the past tell us that claims do not generally continue to increase this quickly for too long. Hopefully this will be the case this time around.

Conditions For Possible Recovery

Unemployment checks also increased to a record high to 4,788,000 in just one week, the last week of January 2009.

With the very low interest rates and fiscal help from the government things will get better. The assertive monetary policy of low interest rates and various government stimulus plans will hopefully aid a sharp recovery in unemployment numbers. Again, let’s hope so.

Update: Week ending March 28, 2009, there were an additional 650,000 new unemployment claims according to ADP.

See our follow-up article on Growing Industries for 2009 and Beyond.

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