Recession Briefing: Museums Benefit from Downturn (Sort Of)

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

Many museums across the country saw a spike in visitors during the economic slump last year, even as they experienced increasing financial stress, according to results of a study released Thursday. (Associated Press)

One thing employment-services firm Manpower has got better at during the recession is figuring out quickly which job-hunters can be helped, and which to send elsewhere rather than risk leading them on. (Economist)

It cost more than $500,000 in stimulus funds to create a single highway construction job, largely because of building materials, an analysis of stimulus reports shows. Education aid and research funding are among the cheapest ways of creating or saving jobs at less than $60,000 each, the analysis shows.( USA Today)…

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)…

Recession Briefing: Less Spending on Love

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

Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say they plan to spend less than $50 on Valentine’s Day this year, a new survey of adult Americans finds. One-quarter of Americans (25%) say they plan to spend nothing. (Zogby International)

New data shows that poor people face a much higher rate of unemployment than people with higher incomes. “A true labor market depression faced those in the bottom two deciles of the income distribution, a deep labor market recession prevailed among those in the middle of the distribution, and close to a full employment environment prevailed at the top. There was no labor market recession for America’s affluent.” (Time/Curious Capitalist)

The White House expects nonfarm-payroll employment to increase by an average of 95,000 jobs a month this year, suggesting the U.S. labor market will continue to heal slowly as the economy emerges from its two-year slump. (Wall Street Journal)…

Recession Briefing: Bonuses are Back

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

Goldman Sachs, the world’s richest investment bank, could be about to pay its chief executive Lloyd Blankfein a bumper bonus of up to $100 million in defiance of moves by President Obama to take action against such payouts. (Times of London)

Professional sports teams, concert venues and opera houses may all be seeing drops in attendance as a result of the recession, but suburban community colleges are having the opposite problem. They’re running out of room. (Chicago Daily Herald)

California wine shipments fell in 2009 for the first time in 16 years as purchases in the U.K., the biggest export market, plunged during the global recession. (Bloomberg)…

How Credit Card Companies Are Making Nice

And you thought credit card companies held all the…well, cards.

Now they’re getting battered by the recession, as some consumers get smart about credit, and others get so broke they can’t pay at all. Then there are the new rules coming down from Washington.

So credit card companies are changing the way they play (a little). Lenders are actually getting friendlier…

Recession Briefing: Can’t Drive 55

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

Just what Americans need as they try to dig out from the Great Recession: gas prices headed back toward $3 per gallon. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline hit $2.70 on Thursday, according to the auto club AAA. That’s up 67 percent from this time last year. (Washington Post)

The decimated housing market may get considerably worse before it gets better, according to housing-industry professionals, who expect foreclosures and home-price declines to continue pressuring the sector through at least the first half of 2010. (Time)

Apartment vacancies hit a 30-year high in the fourth quarter, and rents fell as landlords scrambled to retain existing tenants and attract new ones. The vacancy rate ended the year at 8%, the highest level since Reis Inc., a New York research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets, began its tally in 1980. (Wall Street Journal)…

Next Year Will Be a Better Year

When the ball drops at midnight and we say goodbye to 2009, look ahead with us at what we may hope for in 2010. All together now: We resolve to…

…get everyone (who wants one) a job. Unemployment benefits will run out for millions this year, but corporate profits are improving. Let’s turn this combo into a stronger job market.

…be a little more sure of our “recession is over” pronouncements. We’re talking about folks like Ben Bernanke, who talked of “green shoots” in March, but later pulled back from that. Or people like Larry Summers, who said that “everyone agrees the recession is over,” only to be followed up by others in the White House who softened that statement…

Recession Briefing 12.24: Americans Are on the Move

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

In a sign of the recession’s power to reshape established demographic trends, the new census figures show that growth has slowed substantially in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, while in Florida, Nevada and California, more Americans moved out than in. (New York Times)

Ahead of the recession, some banks — including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley — sold complex securities known as synthetic collateralized debt obligations and then made financial bets against them. As a result, they made money while their clients lost out. (New York Times)

At a lot of fancy restaurants these days, surprisingly little has changed in terms of food quality, price and service since the recession struck. So what’s missing? The diners. (Chicago Tribune)…

Recession Briefing 12.23: In Bank Closings, FDIC Gets Booty

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

The recession pushed U.S. bank failures in 2009 to a 17-year high. As a result, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to close came into possession of some interesting booty, including a rapper’s tour bus that reeked of marijuana, a red 2001 Ferrari, an eight-foot palm tree and stacks of unwanted office furniture. (Bloomberg)

In these final shopping days, many parents are reconciling their practical concerns with a deep desire to see delight in their children’s faces on Christmas morning. Spending on gifts is down, but that does not always mean children will feel the difference. (Washington Post)

In states hit hard by the housing crisis, stripping fixtures and appliances from homes in foreclosure has become commonplace. Often, the stripping is not done by strangers. It is done by the owner, just before the bank forecloses on the mortgage and takes the property back. (New York Times)…

Recession Briefing 12.22: No Time for Crime

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

High unemployment. More people needing government vouchers for food. Fewer owning their homes. Yet for all the signs of recession, something is missing: More crime. (Associated Press)

The recession’s jobless toll is draining unemployment-compensation funds so fast that according to federal projections, 40 state programs will go broke within two years and need $90 billion in loans to keep issuing the benefit checks. (Washington Post)

A growing number of community banks that got federal bailouts are failing to pay quarterly dividends they owe to the government, including two banks that got aid after congressional intervention on their behalf. (Washington Post)…