Friday, September 5, 2008

Entire city of Washington, DC Unemployed

A NYTimes piece today discusses the bump in unemployment over the summer and the number of jobs lost from the U.S. economy. 605,000 jobs have been eliminated since January! That more than the entire population of Washington, DC (pop. 558,891)!!!

So where are all the people who used to work those jobs working now? Are they the answer to the deficit of service workers? Is the U.S. heading the way of the Phillipines or Mexico or some other Central American country, and will its next persona be that of top service-industry professionals, shipped all over the world to work in the kitchens of China's and the Saudi's elite restaurants, paid less than a working wage and given no benefits?

No. It turns out they'll be the nurses taking care of our parents as they age and break:
Gains came in the education and health care industries, which added a total of 55,000 jobs.
...
The jobs data is considered the most reliable snapshot of the nation’s economy in any given month.

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