Rising Unemployment Foreshadows Recession

Re “Unemployment Rate Rises to 4.5% in April” May 5: These so-called analysts who, according to your article, “suggested that the downturn would be a quick inventory correction” have no idea about real life. Obviously they have not paid attention to the daily layoff announcements I have been reading with dread for the past few months. The only surprise to me about the 4.5% unemployment was that it wasn’t 5%.

I’ve worked in the computer business for more than 17 years. I’m damn good at what I do, yet I have not been able to find a job, or even get an interview, for the past six months, the longest I’ve been unemployed in my life. Now, granted, I might be on somebody’s blacklist or there may be some age discrimination going on, but I have never seen a high-tech job market this bad. Face it, folks, we are in a recession and the boom is over.

Robert Gaustad Venice

A year ago, employees were receiving an increasing share of business income, which worried many employers. The Federal Reserve Board started raising interest rates in large measure to combat this “wage inflation.”

However, the effect has been not only to increase unemployment but also to bring our economy to the brink of recession. This is not surprising, given that working families create and consume most of the products and services in our economy and, thus, ultimately generate most of the profits for business and taxes for government.

The lesson of this last year, if we care to learn it, is that employees should be considered more as assets than as liabilities.

Douglas Drenkow

Arcadia