Job Loss

Greeting card companies have taken a cue from the nation's 9% unemployment rate. In a 6-by-4-inch envelope, someone can send a friend who lost a job a pre-printed message of encouragement and sympathy. Although not available at every corner store, layoff greeting cards are being produced by Hallmark and sold at its stores and online — and selling well, said Frank Fernandez, owner of two Hallmark stores in North Texas. "We're in the emotional business," Fernandez said.

California's labor market stumbled in April as employers in a wide swath of industries trimmed their payrolls, shaking the state's long-sputtering economy. Employers shed 4,200 jobs last month from such diverse industries as construction and hospitality, ending eight months of employment gains, according to figures released Friday from the state's Employment Development Department. The unemployment rate, however, dipped last month to 10.9% from 11% in March, the result of discouraged workers leaving the labor force, according to the department.

California shed 66,500 jobs in June, and more losses loom as double-digit unemployment spreads to state and local governments, once reliable bastions of employment security. June's 11.6% unemployment rate is a post-World War II record. Professional services, construction and trade continue to top the state's jobless categories. But in a troubling sign, governments -- a stable part of the state's economy for a decade -- have been laying off thousands of workers in recent months.

ELYRIA, Ohio - President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney engaged in a long-distance debate over the key issue in the election - the economy and how to improve it - as both campaigned through key swing states more than six months ahead of November's election. Heading to an Ohio town battered by plant closures, Obama reached out to working-class voters, making the case for robust federal programs to help them get a leg up - in this case job training - and emphasizing that he "wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

The nation's unemployment rate shot up to 5.7% in November as the job loss total for the last two months hit 800,000, the worst performance in more than two decades. The Labor Department report Friday showed just how devastating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were on the labor market, prompting huge layoffs across a wide swath of the U.S. economy, with airlines and other travel-related industries particularly hard-hit.

A multibillion-dollar infusion of government earthquake relief and private insurance funds will fuel a temporary employment surge in the Los Angeles area, but the construction boomlet will soon wither, giving way to a small long-term job loss, according to a report Wednesday to the state Seismic Safety Commission.

U.S. payrolls unexpectedly plunged last month by 308,000 jobs, the most since the immediate aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The unemployment rate crept up to 5.8%. The job loss was so much greater than anybody had predicted that economists were left scrambling for an explanation.

Here's more evidence that California is losing its struggle against recession: The state shed 20,300 jobs in January, more than the other 49 states combined for the month, a government report showed Friday. That comes on top of more bad news. California's job engine sputtered nearly to a halt last year, adding just under 15,000 positions, or 0.1%, to the state's payrolls, according to the Employment Development Department's revised annual figures, also released Friday.

* Establish a budget and cut unnecessary expenses. This will prevent future arguments about what can and cannot be afforded. * Talk it out. It's very important for couples and partners to communicate and share fears and anxieties. Silent anger will return to add stress in the relationship. * Keep kids out of money discussions. Children, especially those under 12, are very vulnerable to feeling they are the cause of the family's problems.

New York won the dubious honor of ranking last among the 50 U.S. states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico in the battle to retain companies and jobs, while California ranked second-to-last in the five-year study by Dun & Bradstreet. The study found that 56,000 businesses moved across state lines between 1991 and 1995, with New York and California each suffering a net loss of more than 3,000 companies and more than 75,000 jobs.

WASHINGTON -- Top Obama administration aides pushed back Sunday against a charge by Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney that women have suffered the brunt of the weak economy during the president's tenure. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner called Romney's claim that women have accounted for 92% of the jobs lost since Obama took office “ridiculous and very misleading.” “It's a meaningless way to look at the basic contours of the economy,” Geithner told Bob Schieffer on CBS' “Face the Nation,” adding that male-dominated industries such as construction and manufacturing were drained of jobs when the recession began underPresident George W. Bush.

WASHINGTON — President Obama's top economic advisors pushed back hard Sunday against a charge by Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney that American women have suffered the brunt of the weak economy over the last three years. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner called Romney's claim that women have accounted for 92% of the jobs lost since Obama took office "ridiculous and very misleading. " The broadside came after a week in which the two campaigns had traded barbs over which candidate was more supportive of working women.

We all know the United States has a jobs crisis. President Obama further acknowledged it when he made manufacturing a top priority in this year's State of the Union address. He has his eye set on fixing the tax code to keep jobs onshore, training young people to fill them, reforming immigration to retain workers once trained and setting new standards to drive innovation and create more jobs. That's all good news for the nation; it's practically an industrial policy. In all this, though, there's a worrisome undercurrent.

While many industries in California were buckling under the weight of the recession, so-called green businesses were struggling too -- just not as much, according to a new report . From January 2009 through January 2010, the overall state economy lost 7% of its jobs, according to nonprofit research group Next 10's Many Shades of Green report. During the same period, the core green economy -- composed of businesses involved in renewable energy, clean-fuel cars, water conservation, emissions trading and more -- suffered a 3% job loss.

After scraping by on handyman jobs for a year, Bert Qintana figured he'd have to leave his wife and teenage son at their home near Taos, N.M., and find work elsewhere. Then Qintana got a call last month from Chevron Mining, which runs a mine 20 miles away. Would he be interested in hauling muck from the molybdenum mine for $17.05 an hour? He leaped at the offer. "Thank God," said Qintana, 45, a Latino who had worked as a general contractor. "I was able to hang in there and not have to move.

If you have lost a job and are in danger of falling behind on mortgage payments, here's some potentially important news: The two largest players in mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are revising their policies on forbearance when unemployment interferes with the ability to stay current on a home loan. Forbearance means that a lender or mortgage servicing company will either suspend — cut to zero — or reduce required monthly payments for a specific period of time. On loans they own or have securitized, Fannie and Freddie are now directing servicers to forbear when a borrower can show a job loss.

The huge job loss reported in California due to the recession was exaggerated and soon will be revised, a state official said Friday. The government now says it overstated the number of people who were working when the economy last peaked in mid-1990 and then overstated the number of people who lost their jobs during the recession. California, it turns out, has not lost 800,000 jobs since the recession began, as has been widely reported.

The two men are unlikely to mix it up in earnest for weeks. But the core argument in a potential Mitt Romney-Barack Obama general election matchup played out one tweet at a time in a virtual clash between their advisors Monday. David Axelrod, senior campaign advisor for the Democratic president, and Eric Fehrnstrom, a top aide for the front-running Republican, exchanged a series of arguments on the economy for the better part of three hours in what was something of an undercard battle before another televised Republican candidates debate.