Most of the states across the country have come to a conclusion: They have to raise taxes to help with the budget deficits.

The five states hit hardest by new taxes as written by SmartMoney are:

1) California – This state has a HUGE deficit. It has gotten so bad in California that they the state is starting to pay for things with IOUs. The state deficit estimate for 2010 is almost $25 billion with the state and local tax burden being 10.5%. Voters in the state voted against sales and income tax increases, and with unemployment there nearing 12% and the worst housing market in the country, anyone could understand their unwillingness to vote FOR higher taxes. One of the things on the table now for the state to start raising some extra tax money? Legalize marijuana…

2) New York – With a state deficit estimate for 2010 at $17.6 billion and the state and local tax burden of 11.7%, this state ranks number two in SmartMoney’s poll. The governor of New York, David Paterson has unsuccessfully tried to pass an 18% tax on soft drinks, however he was able to raise taxes on cigarettes and wine. New Yorkers have the second highest tax burden due to the income tax rate of 7.85% for those earning more than $200K a year.

3) Florida – Florida’s deficit estimate for 2010 is $6 billion and the state and local tax burden is 7.4%. In May, Florida passed next year’s budget and included a $1 per pack increase on cigarettes as well as new and higher fees to renew a driver’s license or register a vehicle. While Florida does have the third lowest tax burden in the nation, the state has been hit hard by decreasing home values and huge budget deficit as a result. The deficit could mean more taxes in the future.

4) Massachusetts – Massachusetts has a state deficit estimate for 2010 of $3 billion and a state and local tax burden of 9.5%. While right now, it is middle of the road when it comes to it’s tax burden ranking (23rd in the nation), it is getting ready for some hefty tax increases. When the budget was passed last week, it included new taxes including a 1.25% increase in the sales tax from 5% to 6.25%. Satellite television subscribers will also be tinged with a 5% tax on satellite services.

5) Nevada – With a deficit of $1.2 billion and a state and local tax burden of 6.6%, it doesn’t seem like Nevada is doing that badly, but it had the same major problem that California did: rapidly decreasing property values. It also had a history of low taxes, there was no personal income tax and it imposed some of the lowest taxes on businesses in the country. It once got the majority of its revenue from tourism, so it wouldn’t have to tax residents as heavily. In Nevada, the sales tax is going up along with hotel taxes. It also has the highest deficit to budget ratio of 32%.

Everyone remembers before the recession how things were. There were people who would show how much money they could spend running rampant. Most of those people have been silenced by the recession as everyday average Americans have grown tired of extravagance.

So here are a few of the things that have gone almost extinct through the recession:

1. Unaccountability. People feel as though CEOs and high level executives have had a hand in the recession due to their lack of accountability. We never heard from them or made them accountable for actions they may have done. However, now, they end up being the most accountable and when a company does something wrong, the CEO is the first to blame and the first to go.

2. People flaunting their extravagance. The days of people owning things like Hummers, bling, and having their homes featured on shows like Cribs has come to an end (for now anyway). Even the once very public Paris Hilton has been fairly unseen recently. Hummer has been dropped from the GM lineup and people are cutting back wherever they can.

3. Outrageous Gas Prices. I’m sure this one will end up making a comeback eventually, but as of right now the average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is around $2.65. This is far from the record highs of $4.10 a gallon for the same grade of gasoline from last year. Many people welcome the difference due to lower income levels and higher unemployment.

4. Less junk mail. Before there was a credit crisis everyone was getting credit card offers, including children and cats. Now there aren’t as many credit card offers floating around and credit card companies are being a bit more careful about who they are sending pre-approved offers to.

5. Stores that sell stuff we don’t need. Stores like the Sharper Image have just simply disappeared in the last year because they sell stuff that people don’t need and typically can’t even create a need for.

Do you think the rally has stalled?

Question:

The stock market really hasn’t moved too much one way or another for a few weeks. Do you think that the economic rally has stalled?

Answer:

I think that it has stalled for now, but that could be due to the poor reports coming out about unemployment. If you look at other factors such as retail sales (which were up for the past month) then the economy is doing a bit better in the way of consumer spending.

I think over the next few months, the rally will continue but it will be more gradual.

In the past year, hundreds of thousands of people have graduated high school and college bound for employment (or unemployment as is the usual case these days).

With so many people between the age of 16 and 24 unemployed (the current unemployment rate for this group is around 18%), how could we not have created a “lost” generation?

Watch the video above for the story from BusinessWeek.

I think that people will be able to overcome this high unemployment rate and the generation is certainly not lost. Everyone who falls into this category just needs to make sure that they are getting into the workforce or doing something to make sure that they aren’t dormant while they’re waiting for their career.

There are millions out of work right now and there are fewer and fewer jobs available for those who are looking or work. Data that was released by the government on Friday showed that the recession is worse than it has been since the beginning of the recession right now.

It’s only expected to get worse because companies are still not hiring and most have no plans on creating jobs to start hiring.

It is so difficult to be unemployed right now because there are about 6.3 people applying for every one job opening. In comparison, when the recession officially began in 2007, there were only 1.7 workers competing for every one job opening in the united States.

Since the beginning of the decade, the largest amount of people who were competing for one job opening was in July 2003, when 2.8 people were looking for every one job opening.

From the beginning of the recession, employers have cut over 7 million jobs. Even though there are fewer and fewer job cuts with each job and unemployment report, there aren’t any jobs being created. Job creation is essential for the health of the economy.

So, people with jobs are feeling a bit more safe when it comes to their jobs. Job security can be priceless, but for those that were laid off or have found themselves unemployed, it is still quite difficult to find work.

It is, of course, more difficult to find work in some areas than others. Jobs are being created in some areas of the country, but there are other parts of the country that barely have any jobs available and are losing them much faster than they’re making them. The more industrial a town is, particularly in this recession, the more that town or county hurts it seems.

Hopefully, the job market will get a bit better sometime soon.

Source

Most employers (if not all) enjoy watching their employees be productive and make money for the company. Anytime there is a lot of anti-productive behavior coming from an employee, that employee will likely find him or herself as a pretty good candidate for unemployment.

This is why it is important to note exactly what NOT to do if you want to keep your job. Right now, just flying under the radar is not enough to keep a job that is in demand.

One thing, and probably the most important is never, EVER do anything to reduce your productivity.

Some people think that it is really cool to update their Twitter page every time they change positions in their office chair. First of all, your boss isn’t stupid and is likely catching on to how much time is being spent on the social networking site rather than filling out TPS reports. If you are one of the people who update your Twitter a lot then you really need to ask yourself this question: Is the next 140 characters worth my job?

Worse yet, people are Tweeting about things like getting job offers! Say that they aren’t even using Twitter at work; how hard is it for their current boss to see that? Not only that, but people tweet about some really random and embarassing things sometimes as well. How does it look to always be talking about your party habits or your drunken hookup over the internet?

I will say, sometimes I get really caught up in other people’s drama on social networking sites if I know who they are. I even feel embarrassed for them from time to time but then I have to realize that they are the ones who decided to post all of their personal business for everyone to see.

So, a couple of things to remember if you are going to use Twitter (even at work) is to never talk about office drama. Sally in HR is not going to be happy about your decision to talk about how she picks her teeth or something such as that.

Only update your Twitter or Facebook or whatever on YOUR time. If you’re off the clock for lunch or something, then go nuts! That’s your time. You just really need to make sure that you’re not talking about anything that may put your job in jeopardy.

Another thing, there are websites devoted to embarrassing things that people say from time to time. Even in a text message, you can still end up with your words for everyone to see.

Where have you found work in the recession?

Question:

Sure, this question really only pertains to those who have been laid off or have had to try to find work since unemployment started to skyrocket, but if you have found work, where did you find it?

Answer:

I found work at a department store, but thanks to some creative talking on the part of the manager, it really turned out to be a job that wasn’t even remotely for me (in the interview I told her that I wanted to work in corporate marketing, I really wanted to work in brand marketing, and she said that in a year or so that I would be able to be promoted. Well, when I was finally out working on the floor, I started talking to another employee who graduated with a marketing degree in 2007 from the same college I went to and she was making $1 less an hour and had been working in the store for almost 2 years).

Other than that, I’ve been working full time on this website and some marketing work for it. I have been trying to learn about internet marketing, which is completely and totally different than marketing we learned about in school. From what I’ve read about internet marketing, it’s all about skirting the rules as opposed to “college” marketing which is about product research and quality marketing and mind share. It’s just so different.

I’ve talked about it in the past week or so; little indicators of the economy’s health. Well, here is a list from Time that compiles some of the more strange indicators of the economy and what they mean.

1. Hikers. When times are hard and unemployment is high, people tend to have a lot more free time on their hands. This means there is a spike in the number of people going for hikes in national parks and other places as well.

2. Immigration into the United States. For a while now, like decades, the number of immigrants coming into the U.S. has been rising. However, now with a bad economy, the number has slowed down and even stalled a bit. It seems like our country isn’t as attractive as it once was.

3. Men’s Underwear. I talked about this one in a post I wrote last week about ties. I think this one is just silly. But, the idea is that men buy more underwear when the economy starts picking up. When the economy is down sales of men’s underwear drops dramatically.

4. Fewer babies are being born and planned. In a recent survey of women, 44% said that they were going to wait to have kids until the economy starts to pick up. This means that the sale of birth control items should be up, right?

5. More attractive waitresses. This is another silly one in my opinion. The idea behind this “index” is that attractive women don’t have a hard time finding work being models or working for some kind of marketing campaign when times are good. However, now that times aren’t so great, they are finding themselves working at restaurants. And restaurant owners are more than willing to hire the pretty girls to be waitresses so it will bring customers in.

Like I said, the whole thing is kind of silly. I mean, you can also look at more reliable sources to tell you how the economy is doing like unemployment as well as sales figures. I always thought that if sales in some industries were up then the economy is probably doing better than if sales are down.

The economy is one of those things that have many indicators ranging from the very silly to the very serious. Hopefully most of the indicators are pointing to the economy starting to pick up and maybe we’ll start seeing some growth soon.

Source

On September 15th Ben Bernanke said that the recession is basically over in a statement that rang so loudly, the stock market shot up like a weed after a rainstorm. Well, it was just over half a percentage point for the Dow today, but up is up, right (I really just wanted to use an illustrative language today and that was what came to mind also)?

So, on top of Bernanke’s statement about the recession being over, there was also new data to come out that said consumer sales were up. Sales rose in the past month the most they had risen over a single month in three years.

All of this news put together made for a pretty good day on Wall Street, but the statement about the recession being over was what made headlines that day. So, do I feel like the recession is over or that it may as well be over?

I think we may have seen the bottom. All indicators are pointing to the fact that we have bottomed out. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is well above the lowest point of the year and the overall stock market is doing well. Job losses have slowed down (although unemployment continues to increase). Consumer spending is starting to climb back up, homes are beginning to pick up in sales (and in return the amount of existing homes on the market is finally beginning to decline), and new construction has started once again on projects all across the country. Even auto sales have been kind of stirred after the Cash for Clunkers program.

But before we can all pack up our briefcases and drive to TGI Friday’s for Happy Hour, we have to remember something, it’s not over until it’s over and there are plenty of people out there who don’t have jobs and can’t pay their mortgages. I hate to be a buzzkill for those who felt like celebrating when Bernanke said the recession was basically over, but there are so many things still going on not only in the U.S. but all around the world that show the global recession is not over and that it will be a long road to go down before we actually see the end (and by the end, I mean economic growth like we were seeing prior to the beginning of the recession).

For the sixth month in a row, foreclosures in the United States topped the 300,000 mark. Last month a total of 358,471 homes were put into foreclosure by either getting a default notice or by being put on the auction block. The figure is up 18% from August 2008, but it is actually down half a percent from July 2009.

This number totals to 1 in about 350 homes getting a foreclosure notice of some kind.

Morris A. Davis, an assistant real-estate professor at the Wisconsin School of Business had this to say about the foreclosure rate, “The foreclosure numbers are largely unemployment related. As long as 15 million Americans are unemployed, record foreclosures will continue.”

Out of all 50 states, Nevada has been hit the worst. With one in every 62 households in the state getting a foreclosure notice of some kind, Nevada had 17,902 foreclosure notices issued in August. That figure is up 8% from July; contrast that against the half a percent decrease for the country overall and you’ll see that Nevada is hurting.

Following Nevada for the worst foreclosure rates in August was Florida.  In Florida, one in every 140 homes received a notice. In California it was one in every 144.

In the second quarter 2009, one in 25 homes were in foreclosure according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is just over 4% of the homes in the United States.

It is easy to tell when a city or state has been particularly hit hard by the recession, falling home prices, unemployment, and foreclosures; all of which are  tied together right now. If you look at the average home price in California and how far the prices have fallen since the beginning of the recession, it is easy to see why most of the homes would end up in foreclosure.

Another problem is the fact that when you take falling home prices and put it together with increasing unemployment. That is a recipe for foreclosure.

Source

The new data from the United States Department of Labor was released recently and the outlook for recovery in the job market is a bit depressing. The data suggests it will take many years for the labor market to fully recover to the level it was before the recession. This is even if the economy is turning around.

Unemployment rose to 9.7% in August which equates to 14.9 million people who are out of work and are currently looking for a job. The unemployment rate of 9.7% is the total population, when you divide that number into populations such as teenagers the number can vary greatly. The unemployment rate for teenagers is around 26%.

What is going wrong with the system right now is that to keep up with population increase and other natural increases, 125,000 jobs have to be created every month to keep up. Currently, we’re still losing jobs every month. Even though we’re losing jobs at a much slower rate than earlier this year, we’re still not gaining any ground.

Here are some figures from MSNBC and the Department of Labor about the current economy and unemployment:

2014: The year Moody’s Economy.com predicts the unemployment rate will finally dip toward 5 percent, considered to be the “normal” level.

7.4 million: The number of jobs lost since the recession started.

24.9 weeks: The average duration that unemployed workers are out of a job, the highest level since the Department of Labor started tracking the figure in 1948.

4.98 million: The number of people unemployed longer than 27 weeks, also the highest level since World War II, although the growth in the size of the labor market over time contributes to that.

9 million: The number of workers forced to take part-time jobs who would rather work more hours.

25.5 percent: The unemployment rate among teenagers, the highest level on record since 1948, breaking the previous high of 24.1 set in 1982.

10.1 percent: The unemployment rate for men over age 20.

7.6 percent: The unemployment rate for women over age 20.

8.9 percent: The unemployment rate for white workers over 16 years old, short of the record 9.7 percent from 1982.

15.1 percent: The unemployment rate for black workers over 16 years old, far short of the record 21.2 percent from 1983.

13 percent: The unemployment rate for Latino workers over 16 years old, short of the record 15.7 hit in 1982.

1.4 million: The number of construction jobs lost since December 2007 as the housing crisis intensified.

65,000: The number of construction jobs lost in August, mostly in nonresidential and heavy construction.

537,000: The number of financial sector jobs lost since the recession began, including 28,000 shed in August.

829,000: The number of retail jobs lost since the recession started and consumers pulled back spending, including 10,000 lost in August.

544,000: The net increase in health care jobs since the recession began, with 28,000 being added in August.

2.6 percent: The rise in average hourly earnings over the last year, with a boost of 6 cents in August bringing the average to $18.65.

0.8 percent: The smaller increase in overall weekly earnings over the last year, which was held back by workers getting fewer hours.

Source

Have you found your place in a recession proof industry?

Question:

With the recession looking like it might be winding down (hopefully), but with unemployment still hovering just below 10%, have you found a job where no matter how bad the recession has gotten, you don’t feel threatened?

Answer:

I don’t have a job, so I’m hoping that some of you will answer this. I don’t think that there is one person out there who doesn’t worry about their own job security from time to time. Perhaps the exception is nurses and people who work in the medical field. I have a friend who is a RN and I really don’t think she ever worries about whether or not her job will be there the next day. I would love that kind of job security in a field that I actually wanted to work in.

What do you think the new unemployment numbers mean for us?

Question:

A few days ago, some really unimpressive unemployment numbers came out. The figures showed that unemployment was actually on the rise rather than falling like people thought they would. What do you think the new numbers mean for us and the economy?

Answer:

I think that the unemployment numbers will fluctuate for awhile no matter what is happening on “Wall Street.” The stock markets have been on a rise (even though it has hit a bit of a  plateau recently) and consumer confidence numbers are also up (along with consumer spending). It will just take time for employment numbers to catch up.

It looks like repaying student loans could be getting a bit easier. Beginning this week, those with federal student loans can apply for a program that is offered by the Department of Education that reduces or caps the monthly payments based on income and also forgives any remaining balances after 25 years.

There is a calculator at http://www.ibrinfo.org to help any borrowers determine if they are eligible for the plan.

The program comes from the Cost Reduction and Access Act signed into law in 2007 from the Education Department. The Act authorized the creation of the repayment plan for Federal Family Education Loans and Direct Loan borrowers for those who borrow Stafford and PLUS loans.

So, the Act makes monthly payment amount to less than 10% of income for the 1 million people that are expected to enroll in the program. Payments wouldn’t exceed 15% of any income above $16K a year. Those who earn less than $16K would not have to make monthly payments.

This is a great program for those graduating colleges now simply because it has become harder and harder for new graduates to afford their loans after the deferment period for their loans. As of right now, no matter what, the new graduate has to begin paying back their loans after the deferment period, even if they haven’t had any luck finding a job. So this Act will help those.

With the unemployment rates at the highs it is now and new graduates graduating college with more debt than ever this could really help some people out. If I am unable to find a job, I know that it will definitely help me out.

After I finish this post up, I’m headed over to that website listed above to check my eligibility. I only have one private loan for less than $1,500 and the rest of my loans were Federal Stafford loans (mainly subsidized).

With unemployment at the high it is currently at, hovering over 9%, it seems like all those teens who have just finished the school year are having a pretty difficult time finding work.

Because there are so many adults currently looking for work, many are taking whatever they can find, including those jobs usually reserved for out of school teens.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics had a recent survey that tracked a decline in the number of teenagers that are participating in the job market this year versus last year; its down 3%.

So with the lack of work, what are teens doing? Well, it appears as though they’re forgoing the paying jobs to volunteer and do other non-paying jobs throughout the summer, if for nothing else, just to get out of the house for a few hours a day.

Some teens are even becoming entrepreneurs in their own right. Some have taken advantage of the season and started forming their own businesses for the summer, like lawn maintenance or pool cleaning. The best part of these teens starting these jobs on their own is that they can employ their friends and typically make more than minimum wage when there is work.

Right now the jobless rate for 16 to 19 year old range is 21.5%, that’s up from 15.4% in 2008. When you look at those numbers, you have to remember that only includes the teens that are actually actively seeking employment, not those who aren’t.

I know that it is still hard to find work. Living in a college town, there are always college students looking for work, add on top of that out of school teenagers, then the fact that none of the businesses do the same amount of business over the summer as they do during a semester and it’s basically a recipe for high unemployment. There are some restaurants looking for work, but it’s all only part time work and the hours are skimpy at best.

Then, there are just so many adults that have families to feed that are looking for work at the same places. If I were a manager at one of the places where teens usually go to find work, then I would be much more inclined to hire the man or woman who needs to feed their family before I hired a 16 year old who just needs to put some minutes on their pay-as-you-go phone.

Certain monthly bills, such as telephone or cable bills, continue to rise. However, these services can be seen as an expense that in unnecessary and are often the first to go when it comes time to cut costs.

However, bills like electricity and gas are almost necessary. Over the winter, some who have seen very hard times were freezing to death. I can imagine it will be worse this year versus years in the past, this summer many people will likely have heat strokes in their own homes.

In light of the current economic crisis, some of these companies may want to consider measures to help their customers get through times when they have a hard time making ends meet.
Other than monthly bills, consumer goods are seeing a rise in prices. More and more every month, consumers have to pay more for the same amount of an item and sometimes the same price for less. In February 2009, the consumer prices index (CPI) rose 0.4 percent, the highest rise in prices since July when gas was over $4.00 a gallon and the CPI rose by 0.7 percent.

The reason the CPI rose 0.4 percent while unemployment rose to the highest levels in nearly a quarter century was due to the increase in oil prices (yet again).

College tuition is another key player in inflation. Although I don’t have any exact numbers to back it up, while I have been in college (since August 2004), I have paid an average of 10% more every year onto my already (what I think is) outrageous tuition. Here’s an interesting fact, this year tuition and admissions at my school are going up but classroom spending and faculty numbers are falling.

On the other side, while lower prices sound like a good idea, the decrease in prices can actually make a recession worse by:

• Lowering wages – When prices of items decrease, wages also decrease as employers attempt to cut costs.

• Layoffs – Employers who are not receiving the same income will begin to lay off workers as they are unable to keep them on payroll.

• Lowering home and stock prices.

As you can see, either side of the argument has its fair share of points that need to be considered. However, I feel as though raising prices, versus keeping them steady through times like these, can be seen more as “kicking them when they’re down” rather than actually helping the economy. I also find that anyone would be hard pressed to find an average consumer that knows the “other side” to rising prices. Most consumers just feel the pinch on their own wallets, and I can say that I’m really no different.

The March decline reported by the non-profit Conference Board follows a modest dip of 6,600 ads in February, but is well below the record drops of 507,000 and 506,000 in December and January. Online job ads have declined over 25 percent since November.

“The March numbers indicate that we are not at the bottom of the employment cycle but that the declines in labor demand may be slowing,” Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board, said this week in a news release. “The next two months, April and May, are when employers typically ratchet up their spring hiring.”

Source

There is a lot of of speculation regarding employment numbers, however, I know someone in the IT field who was offered a job in Dallas recently and may be able to keep their home because of it. Dallas is supposedly one of the hardest hit locations in the U.S. with unemployment and the housing crisis.

The number of unemployed is calculated by the number of people actively seeking a job in the last 90 days, this probably includes those laid off, fired, or have quit their jobs but not those who are retired.

My husband and I were talking about jobs recently and decided if you need a job badly enough, you will take anything. If things are handed to you, the chances of you taking a job that you find “below you” go down greatly.

Just remember when you’re watching, reading, or hearing the news, unemployment figures are a bet against you and the odds are on your side.

And it did. Today’s mortgage rates are under 5%

However, the problem is now that printing so much money will cause serious inflation.

The U.S. dollar’s value has fallen and it has caused the highest oil prices of the year.

It cost more than $1.36 to buy a euro, more than 2 cents higher than the previous day — an unusually large leap. And the British pound gained 3 cents against the dollar, which fell sharply against the Japanese yen.

The jump in oil prices was even more dramatic. The price of a barrel of crude oil went up nearly $3.50, or 7 percent, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to its highest level since early December.

The Fed is hoping that unemployment and low consumer spending will help keep inflation down for now and the measure is actually meant to help fight deflation.

Source

2008 marked the fifth year in a row where ridership of public transportation was up. However, this year, with unemployment so high and gas prices much lower than they were a year ago (or even two years ago) numbers are expected to fall.

I am currently working with a local public transit system and every month (even now) numbers for ridership have been increasing. Some months are higher than others, but usually they are increasing at a fairly steady rate.

Each automaker’s jobs bank varies, but at GM, laid-off workers could get 85 percent of their base pay, plus benefits, without reporting to work while the company tried to find them jobs elsewhere. Or workers could get full pay by reporting to a factory or union hall, where they could be called upon to perform community service or tasks around the plant.

Starting Monday the 1,600 people who are currently receiving the benefit from GM will be forced into the unemployment line. And while they have been able to stay in the jobs bank for years, unemployment usually only lasts around 48 weeks.

Source

But, that’s what the news is telling us…that if we are offered a job to take it because the unemployment rate is ridiculous and that hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost every month. It is terrifying to me, and I can only hope that things get better by the time I (as well as everyone else I’m graduating with) begins looking for work.

However, now there are too many homes on the market, and new home and commercial building has come to a crawl. Many undocumented workers are in construction so they are currently losing out.

I can’t find any recent numbers (since after the markets crashed in August) that distinguish between illegal and legal immigrants, but the numbers from April-June show that the unemployment rate for Latinos (both legal and non) was higher than it was for non-Latinos:

…the Hispanic jobless rate — immigrant and native-born alike — climbed to 6.5% in the first quarter of ’08 (non-Hispanics are at 4.7%). Compare that to late 2006, when Hispanic unemployment rates got closer than ever before to non-Hispanic rates, at 4.9% to 4.4%. Latinos have lost a lot of ground, particularly the immigrants among them. Their immigrant unemployment rate is 7.5% now; for those who have arrived since 2000, it’s 9.3%.The report doesn’t distinguish between illegal and legal immigrants, but it’s known that illegal workers are overrepresented in construction, the industry that has taken the the biggest lumps. Over 220,000 Hispanic immigrants lost construction jobs in the last year. -TIME; Jun 4, 2008

So, what does this mean for immigration? Well, it isn’t exactly headline news anymore and reports are showing that apprehension of illegals is decreasing; this may mean that there just aren’t as many to catch?

In the 1920′s and 30′s depression, the government didn’t intervene before it was too late. Now, our government has taken many steps to stave off a depression. The FDIC is already in place, so there hasn’t been a run on the banks. There are federal work programs in place as well as unemployment insurance, so I don’t see unemployment reaching the 25% it was back then. Also, we aren’t facing a natural disaster like we did then (the Dust Bowl).

The government now, though, needs to put in regulations on the market. The SEC was created in the Great Depression, now there needs to be some other regulations put in place to help cut the losses and keep the credit crisis from happening again.

So, as you probably know the Democrats have come up with a $15 billion plan to help out the auto industry…Well, the “Car Czar” is part of the terms of the bailout package. He or she is someone who will be appointed by President Bush to oversee the funds loaned to the auto companies.

On a side note, I don’t think that this will help the auto industries as much as they hoped. Maybe this will get them through the next few months, until unemployment can settle down a little and the economy can take some steps to stabilization, then they’ll need more.

Analysts are predicting 3 million more job losses between now and spring 2010.

Not that any time of the year is a good time to lose your job, but especially around this time of year. Many families will have to scale down the holidays this year, or skip the gift giving altogether.

You have to really dig around to find the good news in all the economic bad news. Even experts are saying the economy is in a free-fall.

Half-million jobs vanish as economy deteriorates

His reasons include that unemployment is nowhere near the 33% it was then, and the housing market should finally bottom out around the end of June next year.

He also lists safeguards put in place by the government to make sure something like that never happened again such as the FDIC, Social Security and unemployment insurance.

In the last two days the Dow has fallen over 10%, the largest 2-day drop since October 1987.

The U.S. job market is also looking bleak. It was announced that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits has reached the highest number in 16 years.

Citigroup has already announced it was cutting 22,000 jobs; that announcement was made in October.

All of this news comes after Citi has gone around buying up, and attempting to buy up, failing banks.

With the fed reducing rates, unemployment on the rise, companies posting consecutive losses, and other problems building up, there is little to look forward to in the near future.