Jobs to Ditch Before the Recession Does It for You

(NEWSER) - If the downturn has you considering a “recession-proof” job like teaching or medicine, think again, Greg Burns writes in the Chicago Tribune. The recession has affected all sectors, from layoffs and lower enrollment at educational institutions to dwindling state budgets choking civil servants. “It’s a question of degree,” one expert says. “I really don’t believe there is any such thing as recession-proof.” More»

Employment picture likely to remain grim for years, and predicting winning industries is a challenge

(NEWSER) - The job market is likely to be grim for years to come—economists expect that even if job creation returned to the brisk pace of the ‘90s, unemployment wouldn’t return to 5% until 2017. And for many of the unemployed, the numbers belie the real problem: The positions they're trained for may be gone forever. The real estate and finance industries, for example, will probably never support as many employees as they did before the recession. More»

Weak labor market expected to cause longer recession

(NEWSER) - So much for those so-called green shoots of recovery. Yesterday's worse-than-expected unemployment report has far more red flags of warning on the jobs front, writes Moira Herbst in BusinessWeek. Among them: the average work week shrank to 33 hours, the lowest on record; hourly earnings remained flat; long-term unemployment rose to an all-time high; and temp workers, an important harbinger, took a big hit. More»

Dire employment figures disguise huge amount of vacancies opening up

(NEWSER) - Grim unemployment figures are disguising the fact that hiring has stayed surprisingly strong in the midst of the worst postwar recession, economists tell the New York Times. In February—long before any hint of recovery emerged—4.8 million workers lost their jobs, but 4.3 million people were hired, figures one expert says points at the essential "dynamism of the US economy." More»

Economy shedding jobs at fastest rate in 50 years

(NEWSER) - The February job numbers released today bring the country close to the employment nadir it reached in 1982, David Leonhardt writes for the New York Times. The 651,000 lost jobs, along with 161,000 added in revisions to previous months, still bring a depressing milestone: Since the start of 2008, the US has shed jobs at a faster rate than at any other time in the past 50 years. More»