Recession and Unemployment

“A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun.”~Thomas Carlyle

Officially the US Recession is over. A recession is defined as negative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and since the US economy managed to show a positive return for the third quarter of 2009, voila, the recession is over. But as Paul Harvey used to say, now you'll hear "the Rest of the Story”.

1. The 3rd quarter may be an artificial blip resulting from the stimulus money and Clunkers for Cash.

2. It is entirely possible for the recession to resume. The Great Depression followed a recession and “recovery”.

3. We could be in for a “jobless” recovery. Companies return to profitability with fewer workers and no plans to rehire.

4. Even if companies do rehire, there is a lag period. You don’t hire during a sales slump. Only when the economy really picks up and people start spending again, will there be a new for companies to grow their work force.

Bottom Line

If you’re one of the 10+% Americans looking for work, http://www.bargaineering.com/ is publishing Bargaineering Career Week 2009 with lots of job-hunting advice.

Here is their list of the top job search sites:

SimplyHired – great for local job listings

Yahoo! HotJobs - one of the most popular employment websites. It will tell you how many people have looked at your resume.

Monster.com – one of the largest sites with 5000 new jobs posted daily

CareerBuilder.com – claims to have over 1 million jobs listed

http://www.craigslist.org/ - great for part time work and consulting