Job Losses Worst in Over Thirty Years

I was born in 1974. Yep, I’m 34 years old! This year was also the year that marks the equal time of job losses here in the US, and this year also happened to mark sharp falls in the stock market, lots of job losses, gas shortages, and more. Sort of like what we’re going through today, only HOPEFULLY this will not exceed the crash of 74. As a comfort, you should know the economic distress is most certainly cyclical, and that we will periodically experience these downturns, it’s natural, and it’s part of the way the American, or any economy for that matter, works.

You see, without cycles, we wouldn’t be the capitalist society that we are today. I have a comment on the economy before I talk about the actual headline, and it may not be a popular sentiment seeing how Barack Obama is an overwhelming favorite today, but I think, as some other news outlets have already pointed out, that he really needs to be more definite, more focused, and more involved in this whole economic problem. So far this incoming president, albeit, not the president yet, has been very noncommital and not very visible or swift in saying what actions he plans to take once in office.

I’m really hoping I’m wrong, but we need someone with a definite, strong voice up there at the pulpit telling us exactly what’s going on, not saying that there “can only be one president at a time”. Maybe I’m being too harsh and any incoming president at this time would be getting criticized no matter what they say, but he seems to not have a committed response to how exactly things will be handled with the rest of the bailout money when he takes office.

Anyways, back to the headline. Unfortunately, the economy saw more bad news today when news came out that over 533,000 jobs were lost in November 2008. This is supposedly the largest job loss in one month since 1974, when similar job losses and economic woes were seen. It’s just more bad news in what seems to be a neverending trail of bad economic news.

First we find out we’ve been in recession since December of 2007, when I thought we were supposed to get this data months later, not almost a year after it supposedly started, then we find out that the banks, followed by car makers, and insurance companies, have been completely careless with their spending and are asking for the taxpayers to bail them out. Sometimes it does seem like this will never end, but I can promise you it will, it’s just going to be a long uphill battle, and unfortunately most of 2009 is going to look the same way folks. Wish I had better news for ya!