Far From Over

By BOB HERBERT
NYT

It’s a measure of just how terrible the economy has become that a loss of more than a half-million jobs in just one month can be widely seen as a good sign. The house is still burning down, but not quite as fast.

I can understand why people are relieved that we no longer seem to be hurtling toward a depression, but beyond that I see very little to be happy about.

The economy is in shambles. Nearly 540,000 jobs were lost in April, a horrifying number. The unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent. Even the most optimistic observers expect the job losses to continue, although, hopefully, at a slower pace. The unemployment rate is expected to keep on climbing, like some monster from the movies, toward double digits.

We are stuck in what is — or will soon be — the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. Newspapers and the U.S. auto industry are on life support. The employment picture for even the most well-educated Americans — men and women with four-year college degrees or higher — is the worst on record.

(More here.)