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Recession Briefing 5.6

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

More than one in five homeowners now owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, according to real estate website Zillow.com. (Reuters)

The jobless rate might be high, but, perhaps surprisingly, there is also a lot of hiring going on at major employers. Who is hiring? Hospitals, colleges, discount stores, restaurants and municipal public works departments. (New York Times)

“The U.S. economy seems to be contracting at a slower rate than it was a few months ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers yesterday.” (Washington Post)

“Meet the newest class of labor-market slogger: the perma intern. The perma interns are those scarily young types moving into those cubicles vacated by layoff victims.” (BusinessWeek)

So you’ve been laid off — what do you do now? Nicole Williams suggests five steps you should take after you’ve gotten your pink slip. (Huffington Post)

There is still a strong case to be made that the economy won’t feel truly healthy anytime soon,” writes David Leonhart. “But the difference between a bad economy and a depression is real. We’ve taken a few steps away from depression lately.” (New York Times)

More and more brokers are abandoning Wall Street. At the current pace, nearly 35,000 brokers would exit by year end. (Wall Street Journal)

In the search for summer jobs, many teens are finding themselves competing with laid-off adults. (USA Today)

A real-estate investor in North Carolina went from respectable family man to gun-brandishing thief in the latest recession-related bank robbery. (Associated Press)

Worried you’re going to lose your job, and looking for a strategy that could help you stay employed? It’s all about the money. (CNN/Money)

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Tags: banks, economy, job-hunting, layoffs, News