[jyl]

Yeah, I think overall the job situation is still pretty tough. I live in the SF Bay Area and work in the financial services industry, which have both been hit hard in the past four years, and I wondered if that personal experience was biasing me to the negative. That's why I started looking at the actual government data.

Of course, no matter what the economy is like, there's always some industries and jobs that are doing well.

I think bankruptcy lawyers and forensic accountants are finding work without much problem. And fintstone's area - the military - is a boom industry. Everything having to do with the military - from GIs (no problem enlisting as a soldier . . . ), to arms manufacture (the main factory making small-arms ammunition for the US military can't keep up with demand), and even civilian contractors serving the military - is doing great. Indeed, many parts of the government are doing pretty well, since the federal government has expanded significantly in the last four years (1/2 of the 144,000 jobs added in August were public sector-related - government, education, healthcare). So if you're lucky enough to be in one of those industries, you can feel pretty smug.

But private industry manufacturing job growth is very weak, private industry services job growth is pretty weak, and a worrisomely high percentage of the jobs added in 2004 are classified as "part-time self-employed" . . . otherwise known as "underemployed".