The state of jobs
General Motors announced Monday it is adding a shift and 750 jobs at its Flint Assembly Plant in Michigan.
January 25th, 2011
01:21 PM ET

The state of jobs

The nation's economy spent 2010 slowly meandering through a lackluster recovery. It was held back, in part, by continuing high unemployment. While the unemployment rate dropped a little during the year, only a fraction of the number of new jobs needed to make a dent in the figure were created.

People looking for work are finding few new opportunities. "A year ago, it was terrible, and it's not much better today," said Ed Regan of the Taylor Hodson job placement firm in New York. "We've definitely turned a corner, but we're still looking at people who were out of work for two years who were highly employable."

But the nation's job market is showing signs of improvement. Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute said, "We're going to be growing faster. A slowdown that we've had for the last couple of quarters - not a recession, just a slower growth - that is over, and we have a revival of growth in 2011."

President Obama will spend a significant amount of time during this evening's State of the Union address talking about the job market and the need to put people back to work. CNN Radio's Steve Kastenbaum looks at where the nation's labor force is today, compared with one year ago, and where it's heading one year from now.

Click on the icon to hear Kastenbaum's full story:

You can also listen to the CNN Radio Reports podcast on itunes or subscribe to the podcast here.

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Filed under: Economy • Jobs • Politics
soundoff (9 Responses)
  1. a27tint4@aim.com

    Over 150,000 new jobs must be created each and every month just to keep pace with our growing population. Add to that the jobs lost and sent overseas during this downturn, and you get a glimpse of just how far down we've gone. I see nothing that would even hint at this problem being addressed. All I hear is "unemployment this and unemployment that" as if the way we tally unemployment is any sort of barometer. The worlds borders have fallen for profit, but not for people. And certainly not for the people's profit.

    January 25, 2011 at 2:10 pm | Report abuse |
  2. $$$

    i am a stay at home mom who looks around for work from time to time. i have my degree and experience so would like something that pays decent, to also cover some daycare costs. i'm disgusted by the amount of time some of these job postings sit online, why bother having them? most jobs i've been coming across are ALL low wage paying jobs. companies are getting more bang for their buck from existing employees, that i feel affects the unemployed or those searching. we've gotten into a bad cycle in hiring, and i believe the unemployment rate is much, much higher than they claim it is.

    January 25, 2011 at 2:28 pm | Report abuse |
  3. TimeFlies

    The State of Jobs: India is doing great. China is doing great. Taiwan is doing great. American CEOs and stockholders are doing great. Middle America is not so great. Buck up and wear a cup folks! Tighten your belts! Make that fast food, part time job work or we'll blame you on cable news for not budgeting your money correctly.

    January 25, 2011 at 7:39 pm | Report abuse |
  4. RUFFNUTT

    we need jobs? hen did this happen???

    January 25, 2011 at 7:48 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Sees All Evil

    I live in northern michigan and there are at 10 out of 12 people whom i know that went back to work and the only reason the other 2 arent working is theyre disabled. things are turning around God willing they'll keep improving

    January 25, 2011 at 9:37 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Philip

    @TimeFlies...you got it backwards. Time stands still. People fly by.

    January 25, 2011 at 9:59 pm | Report abuse |
  7. Philip

    I know that it seems as if time flies, but things are not as they seem. Especially these days.

    January 25, 2011 at 10:01 pm | Report abuse |
  8. SayWhat

    @Phil: Time is relative.

    January 25, 2011 at 10:46 pm | Report abuse |
  9. Philip

    @SayWhat: People are substantiative.

    January 25, 2011 at 11:30 pm | Report abuse |
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