Sobering Jobs Data

The September employment report was a disappointment. Not terrible, like January's horrendous 741,000 jobs slashed in the US, but the economy lost almost 100,000 more jobs than anticipated. Drilling down into the report, there are some sobering stats to absorb:

U-6 Employment (unemployed+part-time+under-employed)=17%:That's a heck of a lot of competition for very few job openings.

Average time of unemployment = 26.2 weeks: You better have a fat emergency reserve fund to weather over a half of a year without a paycheck.

7.2 million people have lost jobs since the beginning of the recession in December, 2007--'nuff said on that nugget.

The numbers tell all of us the same story: this has been a terribly painful period for American workers and it's not going to get better much any time soon. At least it's the weekend!

Image by Flickr User healthserviceglasses, CC 2.0

Jill Schlesinger

Jill Schlesinger, CFP® is the Emmy-nominated business analyst for CBS News. She covers the economy, markets, investing and anything else with a dollar sign on TV, radio (including her nationally syndicated radio show), the web and her blog, "Jill on Money." Prior to her second career at CBS, Jill spent 14 years as the co-owner and chief investment officer for an independent investment advisory firm. She began her career as a self-employed options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York, following her graduation from Brown University.

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