Day 277

Jobless Claims Rise

U.S. jobless claims rise by 15,000 to 627,000 according to figures from the Labor Department.  Total number of people collecting unemployment insurance is 6.74 million.  WOW!

Day 199

French Union Workers

French workers of the CGT (Confederation generale du travail) trade union lock up their bosses in the British owned Scapa Group, in southern France.

"Staff at French plants run by Sony, 3M and Caterpillar have also held managers inside factories overnight to demand better layoff terms -- a form of labour action dubbed "bossnapping" by the media."

Day 179

Obama is in my home state.  He is talking to California residents about the economic downturn. Unemployment is now at 10.1% (4% increase since December) and housing prices have dropped 26% since 2006. 

Gimme Gimme More

Big Three Automakers, GM and Chrysler beg for more money to stay afloat.  GM might need as much as $30 billion on top of the $13.4 billion it received from government funds.  The company also plans to cut 47,000 jobs.  Chrysler asked for $5 billion more (it already received $4 billion) and will cut 3,000 jobs.  

We've dug ourselves into a hole.  The real losses are yet to be seen.

Day 138

Another one unfinished.  I've been spending the bulk of my days preparing for my thesis show. The show opens in one short month.  Time for some shameless self-promotion.

Unemployment for January

Unemployment figures for January were published today.  598,000 jobs.  It is the highest number of jobs lost since the fall 1992.  Council of Economic Advisors Chairperson, Christina Romer, stated in a news release, "If we fail to act, we are likely to lose millions more jobs."  The Obama administration continues to push the economic stimulus package.  

The Golden State

The state of California is not looking too good.  Consider these statistics:

• Unemployment rate of 9.3% as of December (projected to be higher now)
• one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation: 236,000 homes
• home prices down a whopping 42% from December 2007