Economic Downturn Accelerating

Consider the following pieces on unemployment in New York, California and Florida

NEW YORK - Financial Services job cuts almost double
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-wallstreet-layoffs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Financial Services Job cuts January-March: 36,000
New Job Cuts announced: ~30,000
Citigroup 9,000
Merrill 2,900
Bear Sterns 9,000
Wachovia 8,600
These jobs pay $200K and bonus, adding $25B+ to the NY economy.

CALIFONIA - Unemployment jumps
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-caljobs19apr19,0,5944269.story
California jobless rate rose to 6.2% from 5% last year. Highest rate in 4 years. And that doesn’t include the unregistered workers.

Unemployed rose 89,000 in March (up 229,000 for the last 12 months). That is, it almost doubled in 1 month.

FLORIDA
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080419/BUSINESS/804190361/1661
30,000 people lost work in Florida in March

Notice the disconnect? According to the government, only 80,000 jobs were lost in March. According to local articles, 120,000 jobs were cut in just California and Florida. The difference is because the Federal Government massages the raw data.

We care for 2 reasons:

1. More unemployed means more economic problems and worse corporate performance

2. Better unemployment figures keep the market in a rallying mood.

While Wall Street acts as if the worst is behind us, the reality is that the bad news is accelerating.