Wednesday, May 12, 2010

May unemployment numbers: Um...

On Friday, the April unemployment numbers came out. The official unemployment rate (U3) inched up to 9.9%, up from last month's 9.7%. The broader measurement of unemployment (U6) is up to 17.1%, from 16.9%. It's believed that the increases in both of these are due to more folks looking for work, now that they believe the economy is improving. Let's hope that's the case.

In other measurements of the overall job market, hiring was up in March, even though the number of job openings and labor turnovers were flat. Layoffs were down. Small business hiring is also quite low and the number of people who have been unemployed for extended periods (27 weeks +) is high by historical standards. On a happier note, temporary hiring is quite strong, even though Kelly Scientific doesn't seem to be reflecting that on the ACS Career boards. One step at a time.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 12, 2010 at 3:54 PM

    Takeda layoffs coming mostly in the US....
    http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?NewsEntityId=180247

    Sorry to bring things back to earth......

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 12, 2010 at 4:58 PM

    If you have a business degree or are in the medical profession, I think these numbers are a very positive sign.

    For chemists, it's still not looking good. Particularly us organic chemists. Reuters projections for 2014 include only one small molecule drug therapy (http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/04/the-worlds-biggest-selling-drug-in-2014-will-be/) Which means that investors may continue to sink their money into biotech research and continue to throw out synthetic chemists.

    ReplyDelete
  3. samJune 7, 2010 at 6:31 PM

    at least our current recession has a pretty curve.

    ReplyDelete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20