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Recession Briefing: Snow Slams Job Market

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

This month’s blizzards are battering jobs. Economists estimate that between 90,000 and 150,000 jobs could be lost in February, as the snow kept people home from work and stalled hiring during the month. (CNN/Money)

The Obama administration projected Thursday that the unemployment rate would fall this year by only a little, if at all, and would remain well over 6 percent until 2015. (New York Times)

About a quarter of the 8.4 million jobs eliminated since the recession began won’t be coming back and will ultimately need to be replaced by other types of work in growing industries, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey. (Wall Street Journal)

Nationwide, a record 2.8 million homes received foreclosure notices last year — up 119 percent from two years ago. Just under 5 million homeowners — 1 in 10 mortgages — owe more than their houses are worth. The impulse is to walk away. And many have. What they leave behind, along with the gang presence, the vandalism and the absence of vested owners, is a slum. A new slum. (New York Times/Economix)

Senate majority leader Harry Reid said Thursday that he’s focused on passing a smaller jobs bill than President Obama had hoped for. Senator Reid’s move, backed by fellow Democrats in the Senate, still raises the prospect that a jobs bill can pass the Senate this month. (Christian Science Monitor)

Corporate chief executives in the U.S. are more confident that the world’s largest economy is on the road to recovery. The Business Council’s confidence gauge climbed to 64.7 this month, the highest level in at least four years and up from 63.2 in October, a report from the Washington group showed. Readings greater than 50 signal economic growth. (Bloomberg)

Cities and other municipalities are in a world of budgetary hurt. Is a wave of bankruptcies on the way? The odds are against it — but municipal bond investors have been keeping an eye out for a rare event: a default on bonds issued by a local government. (Fortune)

A new report revealed that 90 percent of restaurant industry staff members are not offered health insurance or sick days, 67 percent go to work sick, and 38 percent are forced to work off the clock. Restaurant workers around the country on average made $12,868 in 2008 compared with $45,371 in the general private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Washington Post)

Goldman Sachs and other banks should give up their bank status if they want to avoid the ban on proprietary trading proposed by the White House, Paul Volcker, head of President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said. (Financial Times)

Jack Stack, the chief executive of SRC Holdings, explains that decisions he made in 2009 as a result of the recession made his company stronger. “We needed something to help us focus on surviving the recession and all the heartache that comes with a downturn. We came up with something we called the four Ps: people, positive cash flow, profits and positioning. (New York Times/You’re the Boss)

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Tags: bailout, banks, business, economy, jobs, politics, Wall Street