The Worsening Job Market

Economists expect that, when the Labor Department gives its monthly jobs report tomorrow, it will show that 650,000 more jobs were lost in February and that unemployment has risen to 7.9%.

You can spin that information any way you'd like. As Chris Isidore of CNNMoney.com reports, "[S]ome have argued that this jobs downturn is not as bad as the early 1980s. The unemployment rate peaked at 10.8% in late 1982."

That's true. But I can't recall hearing anyone suggest that this jobs downturn has peaked yet.

And, Isidore continues, "If the job loss forecasts for February turn out to be accurate, it would be the worst monthly drop since 1949."

Think about that for a minute. The worst monthly drop in 60 years.

And job losses haven't peaked yet.

Isidore has more. "It would also bring total job losses over the last six months to 3.1 million, the largest six-month job loss since the end of World War II."

That's close enough to the levels of the Great Depression for me. I'm convinced. It's the worst economic crisis of my lifetime — even if it never reaches the level of "depression" ... technically.

If the stimulus package really is going to be the job producer we were told it would be, this would be a good time to start showing it.

In the meantime, the New York Times' Room for Debate blog sought the advice of some experts on what people can do when they lose their jobs. Some of the advice is pretty basic, but some of it can be beneficial — although it seems to be aimed at helping those who are straddling the fence rather than those who have already been pushed off.