USA Today: job market hard even on the employed
From USA Today – another publication generally friendly to the current administration – comes word that provides another indicator that the “stimulus” package rushed into law isn’t having the desired effect. Even those who remain employed are seeing tough times:
Businesses cut total wages at a 6.2% annual rate in the first quarter. Federal, state and local governments increased spending on wages by 6.1%, offsetting some of the decline.
The use of pay cuts — the last choice at most companies after hiring freezes, salary freezes and layoffs — shows how the recession is unlike any since the Depression, says Laura Sejen of compensation consultant Watson Wyatt.
“The recession has been broad, deep and long. No one has been immune,” she says.
Baby boomers— 79 million people born from 1946 to 1964 — have been hit particularly hard.
Unemployment rates for workers 45 and older have soared to their highest level since at least 1948, when the government started tracking it.
I believe piling on even more debt is not going to have the effect we’re looking for.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
