For government workers and financial sector employees, last year was a particularly bad one -- and 2012 likely won't be much better.
More jobs were lost in the government sector than any other industry in 2011, according to a report released Thursday from outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The financial industry came in second place, followed by the retail sector.
All in all, job cuts rose 14 percent in 2011, topping more than 600,000 by year's end. It's perhaps the last piece of bad news to come out of a year in which unemployment remained high, poverty grew more widespread and the economy came close to sliding back into a full-fledged recession.
Government alone cut 183,064 jobs in 2011, the most in nine years, according to the Challenger report. Those layoffs accounted for 30 percent of the year's 606,082 total job cuts.
Read the rest at The Huffington Post
Government Accounted For Nearly A Third Of All Layoffs In 2011: Report
by Alexander Eichler
Interestingly, the headline in the local paper today was that Iowa City is hiring more teachers to decrease class size. Apparently parents (who vote) didn't like the policy of austerity and have an interest in their children's future.
