Now that policy makers worldwide have finally stepped in to stop the bleeding, we have had a relief rally of monumental proportions. Most global indices were deep into oversold territory, meaning that there was lots of pent-up demand for a turn to the upside. A big rally to the upside was baked into [...]

This is not a financial sector post but I find it shocking enough that eBay is cutting 10% of its workforce that I had to post this. Now, this could be as unrelated to the current economic malaise as Yahoo’s problems and rumored future job cuts are.
But, if high growth technology companies are [...]

The unemployment data came out for the month of September 2008 in the U.S. Payrolls fell by 159,000, but the unemployment rate remained the same at 6.1%. The data are consistent with recent weekly unemployment claims data, which point to a weakening employment outlook in the United States.The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), [...]

Is the U.S. in recession or not?
Well, the U.S. printed a 3.3% number for growth in the second quarter according to the data released last week. Since then, I have been asking myself why we shouldn’t believe the U.S. is in an expansion right now. After all, the economy does not normally grow 3.3% [...]

For every business cycle since 1929, when U.S. unemployment data was first calculated, when the unemployment rate has gone up more than 1% in one year’s time, this has spelled recession. Moreover, the unemployment rate has never risen 1.0% in a year’s time without a recession (no false positives). The unemployment rate, therefore, [...]

The unemployment rate in the U.S. jumped 0.4% to top 6.1% for the first time in five years. This rise was much, much larger than expected and makes it almost certain that the United States is in recession. Updates to follow as I crunch the numbers.The change in the unemployment rate over the last [...]

When we think about outsourcing, we usually think about Call centers in India or manufacturing jobs in China. Well, what about automatic cashiers?
I went to the local CVS (Shoppers Drug Mart or Boots for Canadian and British readers) this morning to buy some milk because my wife needed some milk with her coffee daily [...]

The number of Americans who have seen their full-time jobs chopped to part time because of weak business has swelled to more than 3.7 million — the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century ago.-NY Times, A Hidden Toll on Employment: Cut to Part Time, [...]

Further evidence that the housing slump has spilled over into the real economy in Ireland comes from Irish unemployment numbers today, up the most in 41 years of data. Ireland looks to be one of the hardest hit countries in Europe. In all likelihood, Ireland already is in recession with data like this.
Irish [...]

Spain had an unemployment rate of 10.4% in the second quarter of 2008, up sharply from 9.6 in the first quarter. The Spanish National Statistics Market said employment in construction jobs were particularly weak as the housing bust in Spain takes hold. Construction jobs fell 4.5%. But manufacturing, agriculture and services also saw [...]