U.S. Job Losses Continue to Rise at Record Levels

The numbers of Americans without jobs has risen to more than 6 million and is reported to be the highest number on record since the government started keeping tracking unemployment in 1967. The U.S. Labor Department (as reported in the Boston Globe) reported that "... 4.78 million Americans claimed unemployment insurance for the week ended Jan. 17" and that when added to the "...1.7 million people receiving benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program authorized by Congress last summer" equates to nearly 6.5 million Americans without jobs.

The Globe article also reported that the "Commerce Department said new-home sales fell 14.7 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 331,000, the lowest pace on records dating back to 1963. For 2008, builders sold 482,000 homes, the weakest results since 1982".

CNN Money.Com is reporting that "The steep annual drop in jobs marked the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945, the year in which World War II ended". The report goes on to state that "Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute" predicts that the current unemployment rate of 7.2% could exceed 10%.

In tandem with the escalating job losses is the increasing number of "under employed" Americans. The CNN Money.Com article reports that "A growing number of workers seeking full-time jobs were able to find only part-time work. Those working part-time jobs - because they couldn't find full-time work, or their hours had been cut - jumped by 715,000 people to 8 million, the highest since such records were first kept in 1955".

These are clearly times in which we must engage in the practice of restraint, review, and reason as it relates to our overall approach to the financial management of our town. Our elected and appointed leadership must clearly understand the challenges we face both nationally and locally, if they are to make sound decisions about the future of our community. The decisions made by our local leaders over the next 3 years, will have a profound impact on our community for the next 15 - 20 years. Those decisions cannot be made in a vacuum.