U.S. Jobless Rate Explodes

Caterpillar announces fourth quarter profits drop by 32%. Caterpillar announces it will slash 20,000 jobs.

Sprint Nextel announced they will emanate 8000 jobs in the first quarter of 2009. Job cuts will affect every level of the company.

Home Depot to cut 7,000 jobs which represents 2% of its workforce. Home Depot also announced they will shut down their Expo division.

Texas Instruments reported a large profit drop which led to the announcement it will cut 3400 jobs

IBM will cut at least 20,800 jobs. This announcement comes just a few days after Microsoft announced they will be eliminating 5000 jobs.

Layoffs are coming from every sector of the economy, which is troubling because it represents a wide and deep recession. It is now expected January will see another 500,000 jobs evaporate.

On a side note

Falling home prices in December pushed existing home sales up by 6.5%. Bargain hunters snapped up foreclosures, taking advantage of the largest price decline in 70 years. 45% of the homes sold in December consider distress sales, either short sales or foreclosures.

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