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Even if some are smiling on Wall Street, it's not fair to paint the economic picture as rosy for everyone.
"From the human side, the human story it's a difficult situation because a lot of people have been unemployed for a long time," career coach Michael Cushman said Monday.
First time claims for unemployment went up again, with 558-thousand in the latest weekly report. And the forecasters predict unemployment to hit double digits before the end of the year.
"The truth is it's slow to pick people back up; they won't do that until the business is there," Cushman said of businesses re-hiring laid off workers.
Today the Empowerment Tour, led by Cushman, stopped at the Mall of America. Its part of a national program to help folks looking for work, find the work, or schooling that is right for them.
The advice being doled out is that Americans must now live within the times, a career may no longer be a lifelong thing, it may just be something that changes many times over a 30 year period. And until the jobs pick up, spending will suffer and housing will suffer.
Last month foreclosures went up again, by 7 percent, a 32 percent increase from this time last year. Retail sales are off 8.3 percent from this time last year.
All tough numbers and harsh realities but again, until Americans go back to work, it will be hard to even think that the down-turn is turning around.
(Copyright 2009 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
