The Massachusetts unemployment rate last month jumped above 5 percent for the first time in nearly four years, a sign the national economic downturn is taking an increasing toll on the state.
The state has outperformed the nation in recent months because of its strong technology and health-science industries and relatively small construction and housing-related sectors. Falling home prices and rising energy costs are squeezing consumers here, and consumer-related business have felt it.Linnea Walsh, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, said the Patrick administration is encouraged the state economy has continued to create jobs in recent months. "It's certainly a bright spot," she said.
The bulk of June's job gains were concentrated in leisure and hospitality, a tourism-related sector that includes hotels and restaurants.
And most likely staffed by illegals, huh?
The sector added 2,500 jobs last month. Construction, manufacturing, education, and health services had modest gains.
Two key sectors, financial services and information, which includes software, experienced modest job losses. Employment in professional and business services, which includes lawyers, accountants, and consultants, was flat in June, but a technology-related component of that sector, professional, scientific, and technical services, added 900 jobs.
Given the state of the national economy, which has lost jobs in each of the past six months, Massachusetts is holding up surprisingly well, said Andre Mayer, senior vice president for research at Associated Industries of Massachusetts."
Yup, things could be worse; you could be drinking diarrhea instead of eating shit!
"Starbucks to shutter 7 stores in Massachusetts
"Home construction plunges to 17-year low; Drop suggests no end in sight" by Bloomberg News | July 18, 2008
WASHINGTON - The figures underscore the housing recession was already deepening before the financial turmoil this month at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac threatened to further curb mortgage financing. Yesterday's drop in the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's factory gauge showed manufacturers cut orders and employment in July as confidence in the economic outlook deteriorated.
Kevin Logan, senior market economist at Dresdner Kleinwort in New York. "The pricing numbers are important, too, because it indicates that we're in a period of stagflation."
Declines in construction probably will limit economic growth, even as tax rebates boost consumer spending."
Those tax rebates are over, and yet the MSM keeps shoveling them as a salve.
God, am I sick of shit MSM!
McLeod, who is 47, readily admits her money problems are largely of her own making. But as surely as it takes two to tango, she had partners in her financial demise. In recent years, those partners, including the financial giants
It's called a RIP OFF!!!!
Years of spending more than they earn have left a record number of Americans like McLeod standing at the financial precipice. While the circumstances surrounding these downfalls vary, one element is identical: the lucrative lending practices of America's merchants of debt have led millions of Americans - young and old, native and immigrant, affluent and poor - to the brink.
The economy is now suffering. Practices that produced record profits for many banks have shaken the nation's financial system to its foundation. To be sure, the increased availability of credit has contributed mightily to the American economy and has allowed consumers to make big-ticket purchases like houses, cars, and college educations.
But behind the big increase in consumer debt is a major shift in the way lenders approach their business. In earlier years, actually being repaid by borrowers was crucial to lenders. Now, because so much consumer debt is packaged into securities and sold to investors, repayment of the loans takes on less importance to those lenders than the fees and charges generated when loans are made.
Lenders have found new ways to squeeze more profit from borrowers. Lenders have been eager to expand their reach. They have honed sophisticated marketing tactics. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising campaigns that make debt sound desirable and risk-free. The ads are aimed at people who urgently need loans to pay for healthcare and other necessities.
It is not just financial conglomerates that are profiting on consumer debt loads. Some manufacturers and retailers can generate more income from internal financing arms that lend to their customers than from their primary businesses.
Tallying what the lenders have made off McLeod over the years is revealing. In 2007, when she earned $48,000 before taxes, she was charged more than $20,000 in interest on her various loans."Translation: "Lenders" are a BUNCH of EXPLOITING THIEVES!!!
All this is enough to make you reach for an airsick bag.
Time to start EATING the FUCKING RICH!!!!!!!!!!
