Reply #1: That was my question, too.

[Warpy]

What's unexpected about it? The economy is still in shambles, money is still being sucked out of it by the banks, people are still so deep in debt that they're going to be paying it off for decades, making shopping sprees in the near future unattainable for most of them, and companies are still being rewarded at tax time for throwing Americans out of work and hiring people offshore.

Nothing has changed to improve the employment picture and it's certainly no surprise that it's getting worse out there.