Glimmers of Hope amid Economic Gloom
For the 20th straight month, the U.S. economy lost jobs in August, but the pace of those losses continues to slow, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.
"The job market is on the mend," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "It's gonna be a long painful recovery. But we're headed in the right direction."
After the credit crisis erupted last September, monthly job losses quickly deepened - hitting a low of more than 700,000 in January. They've now returned to levels before the panic.
And the government says a third of the industries in the country are hiring.
One California furniture maker laid off all seven of its employees at the bottom of the recession.
"We had to drop our staff down to just me," owner Cliff Spencer said.
Spencer was left alone to do the carpentry, while his wife, Leigh, took over the bookkeeping. But business is beginning to turn around.
"'07 and '08 were not profitable years," Leigh Spencer said. "And it looks like this year will be profitable."
So the Spencers have brought back two of their workers.
"There's work going on. Contractors are getting busier again. It's lifting," Cliff Spencer said.
But the job market differs sharply depending where you live.
In Washington, D.C., where the government is hiring, for every unemployed worker there's one job posting. But in Houston that ratio jumps to 4 to 1; in Los Angeles it's 8 to 1; in Detroit, the worst hit city in the country, there are 18 people looking for work for every job listing.
"I've applied for hundreds of jobs literally and had three interviews since December," said Jonathan Kolbe, who was laid off from his job as an architectural projects manager in Florida eight months ago.
He now sends out resumes with a Dunkin Donuts gift card for prospective employers and is offering a small video camera to anyone who helps him land him a job.
"Yes, it is cheesy. And it is gimmicky, but it gets people's attention," he says.
Whatever it takes. Jonathan is one of 5 million Americans who've now been out of work six months or more. That's about one third of those who are unemployed.
