Bureau of Labor Statistics

Employment Situation Summary

Wall Street: Here comes the hard part

Investors wade into the heaviest week of corporate reporting yet. Reports on GDP, housing, consumer confidence and manufacturing also due. Also see Warren Buffet: Bet on America, same page: "We have a system that unleashes human potential." (Buffet quote)

Bernanke: Economy to bounce back stronger

At a town hall meeting in Kansas City, Mo., the Fed chairman said the recovery will take some time, but that lessons learned will benefit the nation.

Prayer

For those whose faith has been challenged... as mine has.

Father, in the Name of Jesus: I thank you for Your Word. Your Word says in James 5:16 that we are to “confess [our] faults one for another, that [we] may be healed.” I confess my faults to You NOW: (confession here if necessary)_________. Your Word says “the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” For Your Word says in 1 Peter 3:12 “Your eyes are on the righteous, and Your ears are open to our prayers.” Since I am the righteous, You are open to MY prayers!

I thank You Father, that through the sacrifice of Your Son Jesus Christ, You count me as the righteous and a joint-heir with Christ. I speak life into the lives of _________, _________, _________, _________, __________, (etc.) and any fraternity brother, any brother in Christ, any sister in Christ, anyone that has recently lost a job due to this economic downturn.

Lord, for THEIR sake: I ask that you move swiftly on their situation. That if employment is their desire, they find it in the Name of Jesus; if entrepreneurial success is their desire, that they find it in the Name of Jesus.

Lord, for MY sake: I accept the ministry to the unemployed You’ve given me. Your Word says in Job 42:10 – 11 that You turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends and that You gave him TWICE as much as he had before: every man gave him a piece of money; every man gave him an earring of gold; that YOU blessed his latter end greater than before: Job had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female beasts of burden.

Father in the Name of Jesus: I have been a captive since (MM/DD/YYYY)____________. I command my year of Jubilee NOW, and my freedom NOW! I thank You for deliverance from a place that stressed my heart and health, and did not fit with my life’s values. I thank You for your provision throughout these many, many months (and years). I/my family, am/is exhausted and need to see Your mighty works! I/We boldly pray for my/our TWICE as much: that as Job, my/our latter end is greater than my/our beginning when the devil began afflicting me/us. Father, You know he sees where my/our destiny lies, and he is afraid of me/us reaching it. Give me/us YOUR strength to withstand the temptations that he brings so that I may fulfill my assignment on this earth in Jesus’ Name! I/We AM/ARE Abraham’s Seed. As such, ministering Angels are put to flight by the words of my mouth that speak in agreement with the Word of God. I/We thank God for this FACT in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

Austin unemployment jumps, region has first job loss

See: The region’s unemployment rate jumped to 7.1 percent, from 6.2 percent in May, the Texas Workforce Commission reported.

The comments to this article (above) are to the contrary of the following statement:

I think its too early to blame President Obama and too late to continue to blame President Bush. This is our economy now.

The scary reality: Paulson, Geithner, hell Greenspan don't have a CLUE as to how this will all play out.

Our personal savings rates as a nation started going south around the late 1980s, U.S. Department of Commerce: Bureau of Economic Analysis: Personal Savings Rate. We went up to 8% in April of '92, and hit 1.6% the last year of '99. I resemble this remark: we were AWASH in money and saving NOTHING. The US Savings Rate was -0.2% in October of 2001 (after 9/11), -2.7% August of 2005 and currently at 6.9% as of April this year.

WHEN we climb out of this, I for one will be a little more paranoid and SAVE for the next eventual recession.

Overqualified Rear's its Ugly Head...

In Chapter 9 of the blog/book "On Becoming":

"I'm sorry, sir. We rejected your resume on the basis of... you are overqualified."

I say, "I've been out of work for two years. YOU called ME. What is your definition of over qualification?"

"You're overqualified, sir, because of your years of experience."

"Just what does that mean?"

"Well, the position requires 6 - 10 years of total work experience... you have more."

"So, are you saying I'm overqualified, or that I'm too old?" I've been working since I was sixteen years old. That's either 22, or 26 years. If they tabulate from my age at graduation, that’s 28 - 32 years.

"You're overqualified, sir, because of your years of experience."

"I see. Thank you."

See: USA Today Article: Scientist Shortage? Maybe Not. The heading midway down the article "Older and Overqualified" says it all.

Also: "BLS found that 29,000 electrical engineers were out of work from April to June."

CNBC articles

The Rising Mountain of Debt May Be Our Next Crisis

We're in the middle of a crash: Author Nassim Taleb

Boom, Bust & Blame: A Timeline of the Financial Meltdown

Cuddle Parties? They have a web site: www.CuddleParty.com You KNOW some "hook ups" are going down!

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes...

...Who Watches the Watchmen?

(Last page of the comic novel, "The Watchmen," from Juvenal, Satires VI, 347, used during the Tower Commission Report in 1987)

See: Meltdown 101: Unemployment by the Numbers

The markets were pummeled by the news that unemployment was its highest in 26 years: 9.5 percent.

From the article:

"How bad is the current recession? Here's one measure: the United States now has fewer jobs than it did nine years ago, even though the work force - the number of people either working or looking for work - has grown by 12.5 million people since then.

"It's the first time since the Great Depression that a recession has wiped out all the jobs created during the previous business cycle, according to Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank."

I'll let you read the rest at the link above, but some thoughts as to how we're in this mess:

1. Fewer jobs: from a techie standpoint, a lot of that has to do with automation and the Internet. Remember "The Jetsons"? George's job at Spacely's Sprockets was to "push the button": he seemed the only employee needed. Jobs that had to be done in the US can now be done overseas in cheaper labor markets, results delivered in hypertext transfer protocol. (I don't support this, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it and offer an explanation.)

2. Also, births. That is, those in 1983 - 1990 or so, those kids are now 18 - 25 and looking for something to do.

3. Lifers. I was one of them. And because the lifers are happy doing their part, their "cog" in the great wheel of industry, even though their talents and skill sets may have in many cases atrophied, they don't up and quit and start businesses: they pad their 401k and wait, hopefully for retirement (instead of layoffs = the elephant graveyard).

4. Nine years ago, we weren't as bad off as we are now. The election cycle for 2000 started with a surplus that got spent into a deficit rather quickly.

5. 9/11. Enough said.

6. War in Iraq. A "billion dollars a month" (an estimate I've heard on the news). Hm: March 2003 - July 2009 = 76 months X 1,000,000,000 = 76,000,000,000 of significant deficit reduction.

Our "Brave New World" is here, and we were not at all ready for the rapid changes that would mean. Automation may save "The Big Three" and put out green Hybrid vehicles, but a robot may be able to do what Uncle Billy used to do to put his family through school, making a upper middle class wage without a degree.

The old school sci fi flicks had us all with ENORMOUS heads and small bodies, that was obviously countered and documented in The Assault on Reason and Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free. We obviously are the diametric opposite: small brains and large, grossly out-of-shape bodies.

At this point: the only advice I can offer is to read, read, READ and be ready at a moment's notice to DO something else! I had to learn that lesson the hard way, as many of you are now experiencing the lament of jobs and security that will probably never come back, until we discover Warp Drive.

Niel Postman commented on where we are (from the "boob tube" perspective) in his insightful book: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. When it takes the National Enquirer to bust John Edwards having an affair, we're at a place where only bloggers scoop the news on the street, because we're not driven by the market, ratings or stock valuations. We are the very expression of democracy, which is a contact sport, not a jingo, market-driven slogan-fest of litmus tests of how "right" or "left" one is. That doesn't come up on my monthly grocery budget, my bills, my mortgage. I've changed and rearranged things in anticipation of less for the time being, ready to evolve into something on the horizon that will be different than any economy we've ever known... for the better.

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes...Who Watches the Watchmen? WE do!

States without budgets as key deadline passes

See: States without budgets as key deadline passes

For Those "Suddenly Unemployed"...

See: SuddenlyUnemployed.com. I've already commented on 2 threads. It's a great help to find others going through what you are.