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Recession Briefing: One in Five Men Unemployed

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

The recession and the resulting shortage of good jobs have spurred a jump in applications to law schools and a growing interest in graduate programs. (New York Times)

One in five working-age American men does not have a job, according to the latest federal employment numbers, an all-time high that illustrates the extraordinary toll this recession has taken on male-dominated professions in particular. (Huffington Post)

The adult industry is wrestling with a recession deeper and more severe than what’s constraining the mainstream entertainment businesses. (Daily Finance)

Amid the recession, many universities are now making some admissions decisions with an eye to an applicant’s ability to pay, and some are unofficially reserving new seats for those who can pay full freight. (Washington Post)

Bernie Madoff. Angelo Mozilo. Hank Greenberg. These guys, it is generally agreed, will go to hell for leading the United States into its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. But if Stephen Bezruchka is right, they may go to heaven instead for achieving, at least temporarily, the twin goals of health care reform. (Slate)

The Federal Reserve will ask a U.S. appeals court to block a ruling that for the first time would force the central bank to reveal secret identities of financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest government bailout in U.S. history. (Bloomberg)

It may not be such a “jobless recovery” for finance, insurance, and real estate. Jobs in those sectors actually ticked up a little recently. While people in the “real economy” continue to suffer, these industries are on the mend. (Business Insider)

“Long term unemployment is more than ever the norm of a layoff, and it’s across the country and across the economy that this is happening,” said Andrew Stettner of the National Employment Law Project. (Huffington Post)

From bogus government grant offers to phony job-hunting pitches and mortgage-foreclosure aid scams, the Better Business Bureau’s annual list of rip-offs is dominated by hoaxes that tried to take advantage of the unemployed and others struggling with the recession. (USA Today)

Art and antiques have shunned the recession with prices rising as investors look for “safe” places to put their funds, a survey has suggested. (BBC)

Critics of Wall Street firms are grumbling that this year’s bonuses are far too generous. But some recipients are none too happy, either: They’re complaining too much of the payout is coming in stock instead of cash. (Wall Street Journal)

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Tags: economy, politics, recession, The Unemployed Life, Wall Street