In December 2007, employment peaked and started to head south – for two long years. What followed: The loss of more than 8 million jobs, half the value of the Dow and the S&P 500, and trillions of dollars in retirement accounts and household wealth. Lives and businesses were ruined and whole neighborhoods emptied out, as banks took back homes bought on badly underwritten credit. A decade later, the American economy has recovered in many ways. Employers have been steadily adding jobs since early 2010, the stock market is booming and home prices have reached new all-time highs. But in…
Posts Tagged ‘recovery’
New Jersey's Jobs Recovery Lags Far Behind Nation
Posted on May 11, 2015 by Saldutti
Nearly every New Jersey county had fewer businesses with fewer employees in 2013 than at the start of the recession, although the numbers have been rising more recently, according to the latest data. The US Census Bureau’s recently released County Business Patterns data shows New Jersey had nearly 230,000 business establishments in 2013, employing more than 3.4 million people on March 12 of that year. Both of those numbers were about 1% higher than a year earlier. However, there were still fewer businesses with fewer workers than in March 2008 – the early days of what has come to be known as…
Long-Term Unemployment Lingers Long After Recession
Posted on September 23, 2014 by Saldutti
Of those who sustained the worst blows from the Great Recession, few have healed, according to a Rutgers University study released this week. Federal figures indicate a recovery: Last year, about 38% of the nation’s jobless had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, which this year dropped to 28%. But the Rutgers study revealed that long-term jobless workers have made long and fruitless job searches, salary concessions in newly accepted positions and serious lifestyle adjustments. The study was part of a series of research examining the views of Americans about work, the economy and government. It was a nationally…
Is Today's Mortgage Market Worse Than Before the Crash?
Posted on May 19, 2014 by Saldutti
In some respects, now is as bad a time for the mortgage business as the aftermath of the disaster of 2008. Of course, the crash was terrible but the industry got the benefit of unparalleled subsidies. Now the business may lose its crutches before it’s ready to keep its balance. More than $100 billion of taxpayer money has been pumped into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep them on an even keel. The Federal Reserve Board kept short-term interest rates low and bought enormous amounts of mortgage-backed securities, driving down long-term yields and enabling a refi boom that kept…