US recession confirmed - here comes the job losses:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...nnonfarm10.xml
US job losses put recession in focus
The number of Americans losing their jobs hit a five-year high last month in a further sign that the US economy is firmly in recession mode.
New data from the US Labor Department shows 80,000 people lost their jobs in March - the third straight monthly drop and the biggest decline in five years.
The so-called "non-farm payroll" data would have been worse - a loss of around 100,000 - had it not been for a rise in government jobs.
In addition, jobs figures for both January and February were revised downwards, recalculated to a total of 152,000 losses from a previous estimate of 85,000.
US job losses just keep on coming and keep on being revised upwards. I strongly suspect this month will be revised up as well in the future.
People miss-remember the last recession. They attribute the house price crash as being a result of people losing their jobs with high interest rates. In fact it was the crash in house prices that caused the recession and high debt repayments were as a result of broader economic policy. Just as it will be this time.
If you want to see the future then just watch the USA. Whatever happens there will happen here. But as our house prices to disposable income is more highly stretched than here and as the Financial sector is an even bigger part of the economy over here it will be worse here than the States.
And that's pretty bad.
It is doom and gloom. It is real. It does affect Wannabes. I make no apologies for talking about it and will continue to do so.
Now go and enjoy this lovely sunny Friday afternoon - I am.
WWW