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Recession Briefing 9.28: Unemployment Gets Worse

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

The unemployment rate for young Americans (aged 16 to 24, excluding students) has exploded to 52.2 percent — a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. (New York Post)

As challenging as it is for anyone to find a good job in this economy, it can be even harder for people out of work a long time. Skills atrophy. Demoralization sets in and can become permanent. Some potential employers shy away. (Wall Street Journal)

In perhaps the most concrete evidence to date that the recession is abating, some workers are getting their salaries restored after enduring painful pay cuts over the last year. (CNN/Money)

The recession is bringing major cutbacks to one of the more famously profligate companies in the media industry: Condé Nast. (New York Times)

Economists since the mid-1990s have reckoned that full employment was equivalent to about a 5 percent unemployment rate, taking into account the time required to switch jobs. Now two top economist say the so-called natural rate is higher, perhaps 7 percent. (Bloomberg)

It’s hard to gauge how the Great Recession has impacted our culture: How we interact, how we entertain ourselves, how we worship, what we wear and buy and read and watch. (Associated Press)

Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that’s happened since the 1980s. (Associated Press)

Candidates, consultants and fundraisers say the sharp economic downturn has shrunk the pool of traditional donors to whom they turn for money — and made those who are still giving reluctant to make commitments early in the campaign. (Las Vegas Sun)

“Thank goodness the recession is over and the economy is on the way back up,” writes Steve Rubenstein. “That’s the word from the experts, the analysts and the pooh-bahs. If only someone could pass the word to everybody left over.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

Charles Salak was laid off in August, along with two-thirds of his co-workers, by a wind-tower maker in Columbus, Neb. The company, like its workers, is waiting for jobs to come in so that it can rehire them. (New York Times)

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Tags: jobs, recession, recovery, sala, salary, The Unemployed Life