unemployment

Ben Bernanke said this week that spending cut plan promoted by Republicans would not significantly hurt US economic growth but may cost around 200,000 jobs over two years. The figure differs from 700,000 cited by Democrats but still it is opposite forecasts of job gains Republicans have pointed to.

Bernanke said that a $60 billion cut along the lines being pursued by Republicans in the House of Representatives would likely trim growth by around two-tenths of a percentage point in the first year and one-tenth in the next year.

According to the latest survey of the NABE economists the immense U.S. budget deficit is the gravest threat facing the economy, topping high unemployment and the risk of inflation or deflation.

47 member panel of forecasters of the National Association for Business Economics increased the estimate for the 2011 federal deficit to $1.4 trillion from $1.1 trillion in its previous survey in November.

Ben Bernanke said on Thursday that the US economic recovery still needs help from the Federal Reserve even though the country has more signs of improvement.

The chairman of the central bank now gives slightly better outlook for the largest economy in the world pointing to gains in household spending, improved confidence, and stepped up bank lending as signs 2011 may bring stronger growth than 2010.

According to new prognosis made by many analysts major tech companies will likely manage to keep up their sales and profit growth in 2011 while still economic troubles in the United States and euro zone debt issue could impact the results.

Intel Corp and other sector heavyweights are expected to keep expanding, albeit at a slower pace than in 2010. Meantime, heavy suppliers like Oracle Corp should enjoy some revival of corporate spending in the first half, while select consumer-centric companies should also do well.

US reports this week showed that consumer confidence impaired in December while single-family home prices dropped double the expected pace in October which contributed to optimism about economic recovery.

The Conference Board reported that worries over the jobs market pushed an index of consumer attitudes to 52.5 in December from 54.3 in November. It is below the median of forecasts from analysts polled by Reuters for a reading of 56.0.

As the Christmas passed and the stores are removing their decorations customers are about to put aside their wallets again. The sales boom recorded during Thanksgiving and Christmas season was not a sign of consumer spending resurrection, say analysts and shoppers themselves.

"At this point I refuse to put anything on credit. If I don't have the money, I don't buy it," said Jeff McErlain, a Brooklyn, New York, musician shopping at upscale department store Saks on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on Wednesday.

While according to the official statements the recession in the US ended last year, the US economy is still on the brink of a cliff with top strategists predicting the economy could suffer a new blow next year. The main concern is that the US growth heavily depends on government support and it cannot reduce an unemployment rate that last month surprised financial markets with a rise to 9.8 percent.

Responding to the much criticism poured by the public on the central bank’s action to inject more money into the US economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sated that a long period of high unemployment could exact a steep social cost.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota said the Fed's controversial bond purchase program was needed given a "troubling" slowdown in U.S. economic growth and too low inflation and employment.

Robert Wolf, the CEO of UBS Americas, talking to CNBC said that the Federal Reserve President Ben Bernanke has “done a fantastic job,” and that quantitative easing [QE] may be good for the country after all.

“I was probably a little skeptical about QE2, when they announced it,” said Wolf, adding that he thought it was an “export initiative” to get the US dollar “low.”

According to the latest stats the US economic recovery will be modest and slower than previously expected. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's survey of 43 professional forecasters shows that the economy will grow at 2.2% annual rate in current quarter, down from the estimate of 2.8 percent three months ago.

As for the unemployment rate it was forecast to make up 9.6% in Q4 unchanged from the previous estimate. Meantime, forecasters downgraded the growth in jobs expected over the next four quarters.

According to the data provided in the research from the Equality and Human Rights Commission men are suffering heavier from the recession than women and young people are taking it worse than other people. The survey shows that the over-50s seem to dealing with the downturn better, maybe because they're prepared to be more flexible.

Besides, the survey found that disabled people with few qualifications are less likely to find the job now than in 1970s. Nearly 38% of low-qualified disabled men are working now, compared to 77 per cent in the '70s.

As the US payroll data suggested the need for the Federal Reserve to inject more money into the economy gold remained firm on Monday.

"In the short term, gold will still look at the economic picture. If economic data turns out weaker than expected, it will raise expectations of quantitative easing, which will be positive for gold," said Ong Yi Ling, an analyst at Phillip Futures.

According to a forecast made by Nouriel Roubini, chairman at Roubini Global Economics, the world economy will suffer a "couple of financial crises over the next 10 years" as financial reforms are not going in the right direction and not enough is being done.

"Nothing has changed fundamentally. When the regulatory reform was passed by the U.S. Congress, my view is too little, too late," Roubini told CNBC Monday on the sidelines of the World Capital Markets Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

According to new analytics estimations, enormous amount of Americans are expected to lose unemployment benefits by the end of July. Thus far, over 3 million US unemployed people could be left without their benefits even as the government spends record amounts to compensate the jobless. 

eMarketer has published results of the survey recently conducted by recruiting platform Jobvite. The results are really interesting. So, according to the information gathered by Jobvite almost 73,3% of the companies which participated in the survey acknowledged that they search for their employees online, namely in social networks. 9,3% of the surveyed companies just thinking of starting to find employees on social networking sites, 3,5% said that they do not know and only 13,8% of the firms answered negatively to the question.