Layoffs become rarer even with unemployment high

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By PAUL WISEMAN and DEREK KRAVITZ

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. labor force has been split into two groups: the relieved and the desperate.

If you have a job, you can exhale; you're less likely to lose it than at any point in at least 14 years.

If you're unemployed? Good luck. Finding a job remains a struggle 20 months after the recession technically ended. Employers won't likely step up hiring until they feel more confident about the economy.

A result is that people who are unemployed are staying so for longer periods. Of the 13.9 million Americans the government says were unemployed last month, about 1.8 million had been without work for at least 99 weeks - essentially two years. That's nearly double the number in January 2010.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110207/D9L7RUUO0.html

[rfranklin]

1. I doubt that people working feel terrifically secure at this time...

As a small business owner I am finding that even people who do have jobs are much more reluctant to spend than when they thought their homes were making them wealthier each month.

[roxiejules]

2. Notice it is the 29 yr. old who feels more secure...

and the insecure were mostly in their 50's?


Courtney Miller-Rao, 28, is feeling more secure about her job than at any time since she began working a decade ago. She's an auctioneer, selling cars for an auto salvage company near Waterbury, Conn.

[thelordofhell]

3. The ignorance of youth vs. the wisdom of old age

This will never change