Forecast For American Workers: Gloom, page 1

Forecast For American Workers: Gloom

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Plummeting home prices have in recent months eliminated jobs for hundreds of thousands of people, from bankers and real estate agents to construction workers and furniture manufacturers. Tighter lending standards imposed by banks in the wake of huge mortgage losses have made it hard for many Americans to secure credit — the lifeblood of expansion in recent years — crimping the appetite of consumers, whose spending amounts to 70 percent of the economy.

But just remember, according to the economists, we're STILL not in a recession! There will tens of millions that are homeless and jobless and starving, and these pie-chart guys will still be saying "there hasn't been two consecutive quarters of negative growth, so there is no recession, just a little slowdown."

Tell that to these people who are homeless and jobless, and who's numbers are multiplying daily...

Bad enough when your paycheck can no longer keep up with the skyrocketing prices of mortgages, utilities, food and gas, but then factor in hundreds of thousands of less job opportunities or scaled back hours, then you've got the perfect recipe for disaster...

With job losses growing and working hours shrinking, many paychecks are eroding, prompting millions of families to cut their spending. Soaring prices for food and gasoline are overwhelming modest wage gains for most workers, leaving households with even less money to spend. All of which deprives struggling businesses of sales, prompting them to shed more workers, sending the cycle down another turn. Starbucks announced on Tuesday that it would close stores and eliminate up to 12,000 jobs, about 7 percent of its work force.