Sign of the Times

As sometimes I do, today I looked in the Daily Camera, the Boulder (Colorado) daily newspaper, at the “Hot Jobs” listings. It was startling. As little as two months ago the number of jobs listed for Boulder and surrounding towns was over 500. Today it was just slightly over 300.

That is a 40% reduction of job availability in slightly over two months. Probably the end of season has some effect on the numbers, but not 40%.

The shortage of jobs is a grim reminder of the depth of the recession. It portends a long and slow recovery of consumer spending, the primary driver of our economy, and thus a long and slow recovery in the economy.