April planned job cuts down 15 percent from March and 43 percent year-on-year

US-based employers announced workforce reductions totaling 36,602 during the month, down 15 percent from March and 43 percent lower than the 64,141 recorded in April 2016.  Of these cuts, 11,669 were in the retail sector, the highest total among all industries.

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Unemployment spikes in California, Oregon and Nevada

Job losses continued to mount in not just California in February (to 10.5% unemployment), but also rose in Nevada and Oregon to 20-year highs. First, from a Bloomberg News story:

California’s jobless rate surged in February to the highest level since 1983 while unemployment in Oregon and Nevada climbed above 10 percent for the first time in more than two decades.

Unemployment in California rose to 10.5 percent from 10.1 percent in January, its Employment Development Department reported today in Sacramento. Neighboring Oregon’s jobless rate rose a full percentage point to 10.8 percent, and Nevada’s increased to 10.1 percent.

“The West Coast is more heavily dependent on real estate and the decline there has been more pronounced” than in the rest of the U.S., said Sung Won-Sohn, an economics professor at California State University-Channel Islands in Camarillo, California. “We are not seeing any signs of stabilization in the job market.”

Unemployment across the nation may top 9 percent by the end of the year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, and it could go higher. The national jobless rate rose to 8.1 last month, the highest in more than a quarter century, and the economy has lost 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007...

Meanwhile, on Monday California legislators in the Assembly couldn't muster the votes required to approve a provision that would have extended unemployment benefits by another 20 weeks. For many people, the benefits they now receive as a result of the last federal stimulus package will expire in mid-April, but if they take federal funds this time they'd have to adjust the law so part-time and seasonal employees would also be eligible, which would drive up unemployment taxes for employers.

Instead of doing nothing, why don't they just make the change in the unemployment law temporary like other states have done? Too obvious of a solution? From the L.A. Times:

After an hours-long partisan debate, Republicans in the state Assembly on Monday defeated a bill that would have authorized spending more than $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money to provide 20 weeks of extra unemployment benefits.

The bill would have provided extended benefits this year to an estimated 260,000 jobless Californians, including 74,000 whose unemployment checks are due to run out April 12. They are now eligible for up to 59 weeks of benefits...

Many Republicans said they voted no because they wanted more time to analyze the measure to make sure that it would not cost California taxpayers any money.

Democrats countered that the proposal by Assemblyman Joe Coto (D-San Jose) had to be rushed through the Assembly and the state Senate and to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in time to meet next month's deadline, when about a fourth of the state's chronically unemployed are scheduled to lose benefits...

The California Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations have questioned whether increased eligibility might raise costs for employers by eventually forcing a hike in payroll taxes.

Assembly Democrats said they would bring the unemployment bill back up for another vote soon.

Job losses clearly becoming #1 economic issue

Worrying about the credit crunch and falling home prices? That's just so...2008. For 2009 we've got a new worry: a job market in free-fall. And since home prices and sales can't firm up until people have the income to support mortgages, it doesn't matter how low rates go. From a CNNMoney.com story:

Economists believe the recession is likely to get worse until the spiraling job losses and unemployment rate start to improve.

Record low mortgage rates won't lead to higher home values and increased home sales as long as 500,000 people a month are losing their jobs.

Rising unemployment will probably make banks even less willing to lend and also lead to increased defaults on a large range of existing loans.

And with more consumers losing, or worried about losing, their jobs, that should lead to a further pullback in spending. In turn, that will make it tougher for companies to increase their profits, which could lead to even more stock market losses.

If all that weren't bad enough, economists worry that that this will put more pressure on employers to lay off even more workers -- prompting the proverbial vicious circle that can make it so hard to get out of a bad economic downturn...

Even the people who have jobs are suffering. According to a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, more companies are reporting that they are cutting pay of their employees in response to the difficult environment.

In addition, the average work week has been falling steadily during the past four months. A record 8 million workers that want full-time employment have only been able to get part-time jobs, according to the government's December labor report. That's up 37% from the total of so-called underemployed workers in August.

Pay hikes will be at best modest this year for many employees lucky enough to get increases. A survey by consultant Hewitt Associates found raises will be less than 3% for the first time in the study's 32-year history.

State and local governments are also making tough choices because of the recession, with many reporting big cutbacks in services and suggesting new taxes that could further hurt cash-strapped consumers...

Click here for full story.

So what does a half-million job loss mean?

As the recession begins to feed on itself, job losses are mounting -- at the rate of more than 500,000 jobs alone in November. So what exactly does that mean for the economy? First, from a story in the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. recession deepened last month as U.S. companies shed jobs at the fastest rate since the early 1970s, pushing the unemployment rate to its highest level in 15 years.

The figures suggest the year-old recession will approach or even exceed the 1981-1982 downturn in severity and support expectations that Federal Reserve officials will soon lower interest rates to levels not seen in a half century.

Nonfarm payrolls, which are calculated by a survey of establishments, plunged a larger-than-expected 533,000 in November, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday, the 11th-straight decline and largest since December 1974...

The unemployment rate, which is calculated using a separate survey of households, rose 0.2 percentage point to 6.7%, the highest since October 1993. Economists think the jobless rate, which was just 5% as recently as April, will hit 8% or higher in coming months...

Indeed, Friday's numbers cap a series of bleak economic reports this week suggesting that after escaping a serious downturn so far, the U.S. faces the type of severe recession that occurred in the early 1980s rather than the relatively mild ones of the early 1990s and 2001. Automakers and retailers reported dismal sales in November despite efforts to lure consumers with discounts, suggesting households are putting off spending as they face an uncertain economic climate.

Click here for full story.

Next, economists react to the news.