Crappy Times Are Here Again…

Another grim report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows the job market slipping closer still to the grim levels it reached in 1982. The country lost 651,000 jobs in February, pushing the national unemployment rate to 8.1 percent, the Bureau said Friday (see chart below). That’s its highest rate in 25 years.

Sad to say, things are even worse in technology’s heartland, Silicon Valley. The unemployment rate there reached 9.3 percent in January. And given today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report, it’s likely to have gotten worse. “If the January unemployment numbers resemble a horror movie, then I fear the sequels that will be released in February and March, as they will probably be even more frightening,” Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, told The Mercury News. “The message we hear loud and clear [from CEOs] is that it is bad, and sadly, only getting worse.”