Unemployment hits the roof
February 5, 2009
We have seen massive layoffs in the advertising agency business, but the problem is far more widespread than just our industry, in fact because of the advertising “parasitic nature” of doing well only when our hosts (the clients) are doing well.. is only a side effect of the greater problem.
The number of people continuing to collect benefits rose, to nearly 4.8 million, and is now at the highest point since record keeping began about 40 years ago. NEW claims for unemployment benefits spiked to a quarter-century high of 626,000.
In total, more than 10 million people out of work in the past few months, and it’s continuing to grow at record rates. Economists are stating that it’s “Very possible” to lose 1 million jobs a week at current “unemployment growth rates” if nothing is done to stop the economic collapse.
However bad it is in the United States, it’s worse in the UK. It’s widely expected for a full economic catastrophe is just around the corner for our friends across the pond. In fact they are being called the “next Iceland” ….
Great Britain
Economic damage: The financial crisis has gotten so severe in Britain that it has earned London a new nickname in the international media: Reykjavik-on-Thames. The question in Britain is no longer when the economy will enter a recession, but when it will enter a depression, with many bracing for a slump that could rival the 1930s in severity. GDP fell 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, and the European Union estimates it will contract another 2.8 percent in 2009. Unemployment is projected to balloon to more than 8 percent by year’s end, and an estimated 23 percent of adult Britons currently consider their debt level “unmanageable.”
The British downturn is especially severe because the U.K. is more dependent on its financial sector than most developed economies. All told, British banks currently hold about $4.4 trillion in foreign debt (which, until recently, included
This is the worst we have seen in our lifetimes, perhaps the worst our parents or grandparents have seen… and this disaster is JUST getting started… and will continue to deteriorate until things turn around.. and that turn around may take years.
IN the past 20 years, virtually all economic recoveries from recessions have been termed “jobless recoveries” .. meaning that finally when business starts receiving orders but refuses to hire fearing that the recession isn’t really over.. or more likely because they ran up debts during the recession just to stay alive. So they have to pay these debts back prior to having funds available to hire again.
If we weren’t living in it, it will be an amazing event to study… the problem is it’s happening in real time, affecting everyone, globally.
$100 will buy this car must have cash lost all on the stock market, roughly equal to what people are seeing when they look at their 401k now.
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