Job loss: Worst in 34 years

With the stimulus bill looming over the American people, we would all like to think that the economy is set to recover in the near future. But with the way things are looking right now, it might be worthwhile to keep expectations low. In January alone we saw the loss of nearly 600,000 jobs, which exceeded the predications of economists across the country. Our unemployment rates also broke these expectations, hitting 7.6%, the highest its been in nearly two decades. Even more than this, in the past three months we have already lost half of the total jobs lost in all of 2008, and total unemployment is the worst it has been since 1974.

The scary part of this however, is that we more than likely not seen the worst of it quite yet. With predictions that we are going to start seeing monthly job cuts at 800,000 and 9% unemployment rates over the course of 2009, people throughout the country are finding themselves questioning their own position in the current market. The stimulus package that will soon be going into affect offers some comfort to those who have either lost or are in danger of losing their jobs, but whether or not it will be effective enough to lift of us out of such a difficult situation remains to be seen. What the bill in essence needs to do is to give confidence to the businesses throughout the country, enough so that they will not be eager to lay off workers en masse. The more people who have jobs, the more money people will have, the more things people will buy, which could be a process to jumpstart the country. We can only hope that such a plan will in the end work out for our country.