Announced U.S. Job Cuts Rose 20% From Year Ago

Announced U.S. Job Cuts Rose 20% From Year Ago

Employers in the U.S. announced more job cuts in February than in the same month last year, led by a surge at government agencies.

Planned firings increased 20 percent to 50,702 last month from February 2010, the first year-over-year gain since May 2009, according to a report today from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Announcements at federal, state and local government offices almost tripled from last year.

Compare with:

Strong Jobs Report Pushes Shares Higher

The payroll processing company ADP said private employers added 217,000 jobs last month, well above the 180,000 analysts had predicted. That raised hopes that the government’s employment report coming out on Friday could show a decline in the unemployment rate, which is now 9 percent.

No wonder people are confused.

Then there is this:

Bernanke sees 200,000 hit to jobs from budget cuts

Quite the ping pong match....

None of it good.

It is all well and good if you work in the public sector, gettin' rid of those bums is worse than quitting smoking. Most of 'em ain't worth a warm bucket of spit. As to the jobs in the private sector, well we are going broke all over the country so what do you think. If we could have some of the free money passed out to the banks and corporations by the Federal Reserve we could all party.