The bad news? The number of jobs in the U.S. economy today is about the same as 10 years ago. The worse news? Combine it with an ever-growing population competing for those positions, and you see why the unemployment rate is near 10%.
This chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells a sad story -- some job seekers are worse off than others:
“Employment has gone nowhere during the past decade, and given the steadily growing population, unemployment has more than doubled to near double-digits,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pa. “The job market is currently as tough as it has been since the 1930s Great Depression,” he said.
“However, job prospects are improving as U.S. businesses are very profitable and have strong balance sheets. It is no longer a question of can they hire more aggressively. It is a question of their willingness,” he said. “The missing ingredients have been credit for small businesses and confidence among all businesses. Credit should flow more freely this year and I expect sentiment to improve as the nightmare of the Great Recession fades and the policy uncertainty abates. It will take as long as five years to recover the jobs lost during the recession, but the economy is poised to get those jobs back.”
Well, at least there's hope on the horizon after all these doom and gloom figures.
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By: Bambi Blue
Bambi Blue is a freelance writer, editor, and codemonkey living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She moonlights as a jazz musician, a social butterfly, and most apparently a weisenheimer. Loves to cook, hates to clean, and can easily be found on Twitter.
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