US ($) Currency Thread 1 (closed - use thread 2)

inspector_monkfish

16:18 06Mar09-U.S. jobless rate hits 25-year high, payrolls dive

* U.S. jobless rate hits 8.1 percent, highest since 1983

* 651,000 jobs lost in Feb.; prior 2 Months revised deeper

* 4.4 million jobs lost since recession began in Dec. 2007



WASHINGTON, March 6 - The U.S. unemployment rate hit a 25-year high of 8.1 percent last month as employers buckling under the strain of a severe recession axed 651,000 jobs, government data showed on Friday.
Adding to the gloom, a combined 161,000 more jobs were lost in January and December than previously believed, the Labor Department said. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has shed 4.4 million jobs, with more than half purged in the last four months alone.
"The economy is in a tailspin. Businesses are shedding workers at breakneck pace and there's no reason to expect that to change," said Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research in New York. "A million job losses a month have moved from possible to probable."
U.S. stocks opened higher amid relief that the drop in payrolls was not as bad as some in the market had expected, but surrendered gains on the back of a sell-off of big-cap technology shares. Treasury debt prices rose.
"The 'whisper' numbers were calling for the change in non-farm payrolls to come in as low as minus 800,000," said Kevin Giddis, head of fixed-income trading at Morgan Keegan in Memphis, Tennessee.
"Markets, being forward-looking, will turn before the broader economy, and the economy itself will improve before we begin seeing signs of stability in employment patterns."
The Labor Department said the unemployment rate in February was the highest level since December 1983, and it was above market forecasts for a rise to 7.9 from January's 7.6 percent.
January's job cuts were revised to show a steep decline of 655,000, while December's payroll losses were adjusted to 681,000, the deepest since October 1949.
Job losses in February were broad based, with only government, education and health services adding jobs.

EVIDENCE OF DEEPENING RECESSION
"Since the recession, the rise in unemployment has been concentrated among people who lost jobs, as opposed to job leavers or people joining the labor force," said Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall.
The Obama administration, which is rolling out a $787 billion stimulus package to try and break the economy's alarming downward spiral said February's jobs statistics were more evidence of the depth of the recession.
The success of this plan depends on stabilizing the fractured financial system and collapsed housing market, which are at the center of the economic rout.
The manufacturing sector shed 168,000 jobs in February, after eliminating 257,000 positions the prior month. Construction industries bled 104,000 jobs in February after losing 118,000 in January.
The service-providing industry slashed 375,000 positions after shedding 276,000 in January.
Companies struggling with falling revenues and tight profit margins are slashing jobs in huge numbers, a step that is forcing households to further scale back spending, creating a vicious cycle for the bleeding economy.
"The situation is getting worse, not better," said Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of bond giant Pimco. "What today's number tells you is ... even the profitable firms are shedding labor in order to position themselves for a more difficult outcome," El-Erian told Reuters Television.
More worrying, a measure of the unemployed, people working part-time for economic reasons and those who have given up looking for work surged to 14.8 percent in February the highest on records dating back to 1994, from 13.9 percent in January.
The Labor Department also noted a sharp rise in the number of people experiencing long spells of unemployment, with 2.9 million people having been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer in February, compared to 1.3 million in January.
In January, the length of the workweek was steady at 33.3 hours, matching a record low registered in December. The factory workweek fell to 39.6 hours.
Weekly overtime hours at factories slipped to 2.6 hours in February from 2.8 hours in January. Average hourly earnings inched up to $18.47 from $18.44 in January.

inspector_monkfish

jonathanrichardson69 wrote: »

any reason for it being this low? your fx freinds telling you anything, its been happy sitting at 1.425 all day

they've all gone home!!

lisaloo1977

Im a week away from flying over for 3 weeks, gutted this is going on now. Should have taken it when it was 1.49.

I suffer from greed and then disgust, lol.

inspector_monkfish

lisaloo1977 wrote: »

Anything to do with Merrill Lynch trading irregularity?

was just thinking the same !!

if it is, it will soon bounce back....

jonathanrichardson69

typical, thats why its going so badly

neilbond007

inspector_monkfish wrote: »

they've all gone home!!

you mean they've all gone to some poncy named bar to drink bottles of £6 foreign lager?

inspector_monkfish

neilbond007 wrote: »

you mean they've all gone to some poncy named bar to drink bottles of £6 foreign lager?

haha
or all gone home to their essex mansions...

haziec

In my experience they don't get far past Liverpool Street Station on a Friday until at least 10pm!

inspector_monkfish

jonathanrichardson69 wrote: »

typical, thats why its going so badly

rebound to 1.4110

lisaloo1977

Ohhh i just erased that part about Merril lynch, as i felt stupid writing it. lol