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Where's the Relief?

Published: Feb 05, 2009

Every agency has a different method of compiling job loss statistics, and thus a slightly different take on our current situation. But they all agree on its general bleakness. The seasonally-adjusted National Employment Record, (compiled by ADP based on payrolls) pegged the January private sector loss at 522,000 jobs. TrimTabs Investment Research used daily income tax withholdings to arrive at its total: 650,000. Layoff totals were three times that of January 2008, according to Chicago outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Challenger noted how the recession refused to be contained within an industry or two. It has gathered steam as it has spread, starting with the financial, publishing and manufacturing sectors, then hitting retail and telecom, and now even decimating the rolls of tech companies, Big Pharma, aerospace and law firms (all areas that seemed, for a while, recession-resistant).

Actually, there?s a tiny grain of un-terrible truth to be found: For ADP and TrimTab, January?s amounts showed improvement over December?s findings (the former measured 659,000 and the latter counted a similar 683,000). Despite this, the Labor Department's January average read 582,250; both the average and the figure posted for the last week of the month (626,000) hit peaks not seen since 1982. With the country?s jobless rate now officially recorded at 7.6% for January, everyone is anxiously waiting for the spike that will signal a break in ?unemployment fever.?

--Posted by Todd Obolsky, Vault Staff Writer

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