unemployment

This year, he stopped telling the joke. Too many children were asking for socks. "They've probably heard their parents say, 'Geez, I wish I had some money to get them clothes,'" says Mr. Riemersma, 56 years old. 

It's like watching a slow-motion video of cirrhosis of the lung.  More »

You've got pink slip! AOL plans to reduce its workforce by a third as it prepares to be spun off from its ill-fated Time Warner marriage. Who will be left to "cancel the account?" [AP] (Photo: RogueSun Media)  More »

Retailers have been hoping that we'd enter the annual Festival of Shopping with higher spirits than last year, but it looks like that might not happen after all. The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index was updated today, and it shows a drop to 66.0, "well below October's reading of 70.6 and a sharp reversal of the 71.0 figure economists had expected."  More »

In this job market, anything you can do to give your cat or dog an edge is worth pursuing. That's why you shouldn't enroll your pet in just any diploma mill—you want one that's a proven scam. Boingboing points out that there's a Wikipedia page to keep track of animals with fraudulent diplomas to make it easier to comparison shop for that next fake certificate.  More »

WSJ takes a look at the "severance class" - unemployed formerly high-ranking folks burning through their chunky termination pay package to maintain the outward apperance of their pre-pink slip lifestlye.   More »

Earlier this week, I posted about a college student who couldn't get Capital One's Emergency Payment Protection Plan activated on his account because of missed deadlines. Andon wrote back today to say that after he sent an EECB to the credit card company's executives, they apologized and activated the service.  More »

If you're still struggling to find a job in the current economy, you'll be happy to know that this morning President Obama is expected to sign legislation to extend benefits for few more months. The New York Times has more info on how the extension will work, and who qualifies for it.  More »

The pace of job losses has slowed significantly, but the economy still divested itself of 190,000 jobs in October, sending the national unemployment rate to 10.2%, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It should be noted that the unemployment rate only tracks people actively seeking work.  More »

Cory wrote in earlier to complain about Capital One's nasty habit of having their collection department call you to upsell you on other products. At almost the same time, Andon wrote to us to let us know that the company's protection plan—the sort of thing they're trying to sell to people like Cory—is useless unless you can manipulate time (Andon can't).  More »

It turns out more Costco customers use food stamps than CEO James D. Sinegal originally thought, because after a test run earlier this year the company has decided to roll out the program nationwide.  More »

If you're just starting out in your career, BusinessWeek has some sobering news for you. Statistics show that people who come of age and spend the early years of their careers un- or underemployed will fall behind their always-employed peers in both earnings and career status, and most will never recover the lost ground.  More »

At some point, we're going to have to stop referring to every red-hued outbreak map as being zombie-like, but this is not that point. It's nearly Halloween, the #2 movie in the nation is Zombieland, and yesterday the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis warned that unemployment may exceed 10% before the end of the year. This is the appropriate way to view unemployment today.  More »

As if your job search wasn't already discouraging enough, this month the Department of Labor reported that there are now 6.3 applicants competing for every job opening. That's the highest since the recession began.  More »

If you've been out of work for months, and still don't have any leads on your next job, you've got a lot of company. According to the latest government job report, the average job search now takes over six months, the longest average since the government started tracking unemployment in 1948.  More »