The Recession Is Ending... Again!

Every month it's the same damn story... Job losses were horrendous, but hey, they were expected to be even worse. The sky isn't falling! The recession is over! Spend, spend, spend!

Give me a fucking break.

This time, AP reports that July layoffs were a mere 247,000—the fewest all year—while the unemployment rate dipped to 9.4%, its first decline in 15 months, according to the Labor Department. Yee-haw! And then the requisite: "It was a better-than-expected showing that offered a strong signal that the recession is finally ending." The same sentence that has been repeated every month, all year, ad nauseum. Meanwhile, "analysts were forecasting job losses to slow to around 320,000 and the unemployment rate to tick up to 9.6%."

What a relief. Oh, except for the fact that there were still 14.5 million out of work in July. And buried down nice and deep in the report: In January, 741,000 jobs disappeared, the most in any month since 1949. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 6.7 million jobs."

When dozens of my friends and I stop living on $405 a week, then I'll start to believe this malarkey.

ADDENDUM: President Obama, obviously after reading my post here, has responded sensibly: "We have a lot further to go. As far as I'm concerned, we will not have a true recovery until we stop losing jobs." He said he won't rest until "every American that is looking for a job can find one."