Celebrations over reported initial job losses falling and talk of the recession peaking both appear to have been pre-emptive.
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Despite job loss claims falling earlier in the month, they have since grown higher than anticipated last week. The Labor Department said the number of first-time job loss claims rose to a 637,000 in the week ended May 9. Analysts expected a report of only 610,000.
The spark in jobless claims can be mainly attributed to Chrysler LLC filing for bankruptcy last week.
With General Motors Corp. expected to follow suit and file for Chapter 11 the auto industry will continue to push unemployment rate higher than its already 25-year high of 8.9%.
A long standing American adage is “As goes General Motors, so goes America.”
As several American car dealership owners fight for survival, America seems to be in as rocky as state as GM.
Unfortunately, job losses can not only be faulted on a domestic auto industry that can no longer compete.
The closure of the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Farmerville, Louisiana has led to a 30 percent increase in initial claims for unemployment benefits in that state. In some parts of Georgia that figure has raised 83 percent.
The number of people filing claims on an ongoing basis rose to a record high for the 15th straight week.
If there’s one thing the people of Pennsylvania can teach each of us it’s that those benefits don’t last forever. Figures released by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry show that more than 43,000 people have reached the end of their unemployment payments.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has shed about 5 million jobs.
Have you recently suffered a job loss? Have you been without work for much longer?
I’d like to hear your story.
Email me at therecessiondiaries@gmail.com.
Michael Arceneaux hails from Houston, lives in Harlem and praises Beyoncé’s name wherever he goes. Follow him on Twitter.
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