1.9 Million Jobs Lost in November

The 2008 tally soars after payrolls shrink by 533,000 in November, the biggest one-month decline in nearly 34 years. Unemployment soars to 6.7%.

With the economy in a recession and most economic indicators signaling even more difficult times ahead, economists say job losses will likely deepen and continue through at least the first half of 2009.

Citing weak economic conditions, a slew of large-scale job-cut announcements came this week.

On Thursday alone, AT&T (T, Fortune 500), DuPont (DD, Fortune 500), Viacom (VIA), Credit Suisse (CS) and Avis (CAR, Fortune 500) announced cuts that totaled nearly 23,000 cuts, most of which will take place over the next several months.

According to a report by the outsourcing agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas, planned job cut announcements by U.S. employers soared to 181,671 last month, the second-highest total on record.

Temporary employment, including workers employed by temp agencies, fell by 100,700 jobs last month, the highest on records that go back to 1985. That could mean even more full-time payroll reductions to come, as employers often cut temporary workers before they begin cutting permanent staff.

Article continued at Money.CNN.com

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The Hedge Fund Collapse

In the next few months, thousands of hedge funds will go out of business. What the world will look like for the survivors.

By Jesse Eisinger | November 11, 2008

The past several years, the most valued people in our society were those who could make money from money. They weren’t cancer researchers or astrophysicists. They weren’t even the really important people, like N.B.A. players or movie stars. They were hedge fund managers. Last year, five of them made well over $1 billion each.

They scored, in part, by charging enormously high fees to investors who felt lucky just to be in business with them. The air of mystery that surrounded hedge fund managers—aided by their unregulated status and in some cases their black-box investing techniques—seemed only to bring in more money.

So much for that. The hedge fund mystique died with the crash of 2008. Youthful traders and big shots from investment banks won’t soon be given billions to invest based on their résumés. Mystery and opacity will be a negative, not cause for reward. Regulators, one hopes, are unlikely to again ignore an industry that, under their noses, grabbed at its peak nearly $2 trillion to manage.

Article continued at Entrepreneur.com

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Hot Times Ahead

WHEN RECESSION HITS THE ECONOMY, NETWORK MARKETING BOOMS

By Rod Cook

If you’re in Network Marketing, there’s good news, and there’s bad news - and the great news is that, for you, they’re both good news.

In good economic times, people are less interested in career alternatives but they can easily afford to buy more consumer goods. In bad times, they crave new business opportunities. Today, we could soon be facing global recession - and tremendous worldwide opportunities for you.

The U.S. economy is cracking apart due to mortgage meltdowns and rising fuel costs (energy) that are causing great concern worldwide. Fears are that an American economic dive will hurt the entire world economy.

U.S. and worldwide, people are beginning to worry. Once they start worrying, they quit spending money. This “psychology of fear” fuels bigger recessions. I’m not saying there is going to be a depression, which is much worse than a recession. What I am predicting, based on surveys conducted by our company (which have proved exceedingly accurate over the past 20 years), is higher unemployment and underemployment - good people forced to work for less money than their qualifications would warrant. Translated: pushed to work for trashcan wages.

Article continued at MLMConsultant.com

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