Oct 06 Is the High Jobless Rate Due to the Return of Discouraged Workers to the Pool? Question: Is there any [truth to the] idea that the jobless rate might have increased due to return of discouraged workers to the pool vs actual lost jobs? Paul Solman: None. Not in the data. “Discouraged workers” come in… Continue reading
Oct 06 Recession Grads Not Afraid to Turn Down Jobs A recent survey has found just 45 percent of college students offered a job this past spring accepted a position, begging the question, are recent graduates grasping the severity of the financial crisis?… Continue reading
Oct 06 Watch Commercial Real Estate May Be Next Victim of Recession Just two years ago an office space in midtown Manhattan could fetch close to $1.7 billion. Today, the same property trades for about $600 million. A sign the commercial real estate market will be the next shoe to drop in… Continue watching
Oct 05 The Great Recession Through an Economist's Walk to Work By Business Desk Editor’s note: Harvard economist Richard Freeman recently sent us a fascinating slide show he’d created of empty storefronts around the Boston area. We liked it so much that Paul sat down with Freeman a few days ago for an… Continue reading
Oct 02 More Grim News in the Sept. Jobs Numbers Paul Solman: Today’s unemployment data are grim. I began to write “startlingly grim” but then realized that, for those of us on-the-record pessimists with regard to green shoots and recovery, the numbers aren’t startling at all. Having been on the… Continue reading
Oct 02 Watch Job Losses Rise, Dampening Hopes for a Quick Recovery Employers shed 263,000 jobs in September, more than analysts expected, bringing the jobless rate to 9.8 percent. Economics columnist David Leonhardt and labor expert Jacob Kirkegaard look at the numbers. Continue watching
Oct 02 Unemployment Hits 9.8%, Job Losses Accelerate By Maureen Hoch September was a rough month for the economy, with the unemployment rate rising from 9.7 percent to 9.8 percent as employers cut more jobs than expected, and more unemployed workers gave up searching for jobs. Continue reading
Oct 01 Portrait of B of A's Ken Lewis, Soon to Be Retired Editor’s note: You may remember artist Geoffrey Raymond from our Lehman Brothers story last month. Raymond was painting portraits of the wizards of Wall Street even before the market went into a tailspin. After the crash, he started… Continue reading
Oct 01 Watch News Wrap: Markets Drop on Mix of Weak Reports In other news, markets fell on a rise in claims for unemployment benefits and drops in auto sales and factory activity, and a key Senate committee neared the end of its work on health care reform. Continue watching
Oct 01 Few Profits, Many Cost Overruns Expected for Olympic Hosts As the International Olympic Committee prepares to anoint a host for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games Friday in Copenhagen, cities vying for the honor are unlikely to receive much of a direct economic boost as host. Continue reading