Why do they call this a jobless recovery?

[Norbert]

On the LBN board Friday I counted no less six threads of layoff stories headed by Kodak and Kraft. And my impromtu research only went two pages into LBN and two days worth of news stories linked.

Let's call it what it really is; a "negative job growth recovery" and I even think that is a stretch by putting recovery in there.

[sendero]

1. Jobloss recovery...

... is the best description. And even the "recovery" word is highly suspect. About the only thing recovering is stock prices and small gains in corporate profits. Neither will necessarily do much do pull the nations economy up.

And there are plenty of analysts who think this stock market recovery is nothing more than a continuation of the late 90s bubble. P/E ratios are still ridiculously high. And the Fed cannot keep rates near zero forever.

We do live in interesting times... :)

[goddess40]

2. The rich are getting richer

and they don't have to pay a decent wage to the people making them richer.

[junker]

3. never was a recession....therefore never was a recovery

the recession/depression will hit in the first quarter of this year. The mis-named recession from which we are supposedly recovering was not a recession. Merely an outlier.

In a recession it is critical that purchasing stop such that a 'pent up demand' comes into existance which, when released later in the cycle, fuels the actual recovery.

As TPTB have continued to force feed the debt machine and no consumers actually stopped purchasing up til this past (03) christmas season, there has actually been no recession yet, merely the beginings of the collapse down to the depression.

As evidence of the above one only need look to the 3.6 million people who are involuntarily out of work, and that almost all new jobs created in the last 3 years have been at very low wages relative to those that left. So the depression started Jan 1 2004 but it will take the 'hedonically enlarged' and truth-challenged Federal Reserve Bank til about July to fess up to the developing truth that is betrayed by our lying eyes ("who you gonna believe, your lying eyes our our beloved dictator who tells us we are in recovery").

So, you be correct. Recovery applied now is yet one more lie.

[FloridaPat]

7. Word among mortgage refinancers is that what little "recovery"

we have seen in the last 3 years is because of refinancing homes. They refinanced their equity to pay off their debt and keep going until things got better and the job market got better. Now they are up to their eyeballs in debt again and now where to go. I have a friend that did that. He's been out of work for 2 years as a programmer. He thinks he may have to sell his house and has no idea what he will do then.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. How about ...

... a Wage Depression.

... a Labor-Free Recovery.

... a Worker's Depression / Rich Man's Recovery.

Brought to us by Cheap Labor Conservatives.

--bkl

[SheilaT]

5. Because they're trying to pretend

that the economy is improving, and it's mighty hard to make the case if people are still losing jobs. So they call it a "jobless recovery" which is total b.s.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Here's a line:

"A recovery with no jobs is no recovery at all"-me

[Ruti]

8. A jobless recovery, which

to me is an oxymoron, is:

Those who work: have no work, are underemployed, have to hold several minimum-wage jobs to survive etc.; which causes really low overhead :puke:

so that

Those who invest: get great returns on their unearned money.

I apologize for not looking up the specifics (but, if you want #'s, just google): in the 1970's, a CEO made 40 X worker and now it's 400 X...or something comparable

:puke:

[Nobody]

9. "Negative growth"?

I've been calling it what it is. Job hemorrhage. Economy down the toilet. Industries thought to be the wave of the future being exported with nothing but fast food and Wal Mart to replace them. Our biggest export is high-wage jobs.

When the waste cutting knife comes along, it's the workers who get laid off, not the executive bonuses that get reduced.

Businesses are in trouble and no matter how productive we workers are, it isn't going to save the company from ruin.