More job losses and falling GDP ahead: White House adviser

[Dr.Phool]

Source: Reuters

More job losses and falling GDP ahead: White House adviser
Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:06am EDT


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House economic adviser Christina Romer said on Tuesday that the United States will experience continued job losses and a falling gross domestic product for several more months.

"We know the economy's still sick. We know we've got several more months of job loss, for example. We know that the numbers on GDP are almost surely going to be very bad for this quarter and next," Romer, the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on NBC's "The Today Show."

The U.S. economy lost 663,000 jobs last month, driving the unemployment rate to a 25-year high of 8.5 percent. Economists polled by Reuters expect the unemployment rate to rise to 9.8 percent a year from now.

The economy shrank at an annual rate of 6.3 percent in the last quarter of 2008, the steepest decline since the first quarter of 1982.

Economists polled by Reuters expect GDP to contract by 5.0 percent in the first quarter of 2009 and 2 percent in the second quarter before edging into positive growth toward the end of the year.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE53D2J3200...

[OhioChick]

1. No Jobs = No Recovery. n/t

[jaxx]

6. Jobs coming back are the last leg of the recovery.

[OhioChick]

9. I understand where you're coming from however...

If people keep losing jobs at this phenomenal rate, can't pay their mortgages, credit card bills, etc., everyone suffers. The financial institutions don't get their money, auto makers can't sell their cars and so on and so on. Big vicious circle.

[Skittles]

10. it gets worse

people who HAVE jobs are afraid they won't have jobs so they cut back too - the effects are very wide-reaching

[OhioChick]

11. You're absolutely right.

I know that I'll be getting a pink slip soon and I'm not buying a damn thing that isn't a necessity.

[Skittles]

13. I see layoff as imminent for me too

fucking offshoring

[Dappleganger]

14. Good luck.

We feel the same--out of work since beginning of March.

[Mr. Hyde]

12. Unemployment isn't a lagging indicator here, it's a key component of this spiral

along with declining retail sales, shrinking GDP, falling prices, and foreclosures. The talking heads are full of useless memes.
edit typo

[gizmo1979]

8. I agree.

We need something quick.

[mike_c]

2. but Goldman Sachs is recovering nicely, so all is well....

[acmavm]

4. No shit. They're gonna have a fire sale on stocks so they can

pay back the 10 billion they got so the government can't tell them to operate with some ethics and accountability.

There is no improvement, there is no recovery. Not for us.

[antimatter98]

3. So why are unemployment benefits being cut off? n/t

[Dr.Phool]

5. The crime rate is too low.

Cut off unemployment, make people desperate, you get a crime wave, and you can hire more cops, and private prison guards, and voila! A recovery.

[jaxx]

7. Where are they being cut off?

In the states where the governors are refusing the help with unemployment?

[Dappleganger]

15. They're afraid of giving my children more debt?

Of course if they're starving it won't make a bit of difference!