Desaparecen los empleos, y la fuerza de trabajo también

March 7, 2008 (LPAC)--Net job losses nearly tripled from January to February, reaching 63,000 from 22,000, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This was the largest number of net losses in five years. In fact, 89,000 jobs in the good-producing sector of the economy were eliminated, and not just because of the “housing crisis”: while 39,000 jobs were lost in construction, 52,000 were lost in manufacturing, including 13,000 in the auto industry. Balanced against those losses in the physical economy, were “job gains” in health care, leisure, hospitality, and the government.

It is only because an incredible 450,000 people left the civilian workforce entirely in the past month, the BLS admits, that unemployment did not go up, but is reported at a ridiculous rate of 4.8%.

In response to the post "mortgage crisis" financial collapse, the Federal Reserve announced today that it will increase the amount of loans it plans to make available to banks this month to $100 billion, on top of the $160 billion in short-term loans to banks, auctioned since December.