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Unemployment Claims Increase 70%

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By MICHAEL SASSO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 4, 2008

TAMPA - For a sign of just how tough the job market has become, consider this: In Hillsborough County, unemployment compensation claims are up 70 percent this year over last year.

In fact, unemployment compensation claims now are far higher than they were in 2002 during the last recession, said Michael Garcia, a work force services manager at the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance, a local jobs agency.

The agency's computer systems are feeling the strain of all the jobseekers trying to use its services.

"There are so many people accessing the computer systems right now, it's slow," Garcia said, as his own computer nearly froze up Friday while he accessed a database.

According to national employment and unemployment figures out Friday, the pain is being felt in the Bay area and across the country.

In September, the U.S. economy lost 159,000 jobs, the worst month of retrenchment in five years, the government reported Friday, enhancing fears that an already pronounced downturn had entered a more painful stage that could last well into next year.

Employment has diminished for nine consecutive months, resulting in the elimination of 760,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department report. Most of that occurred before the trauma of recent weeks, when a string of prominent Wall Street institutions nearly collapsed, prompting the government to propose a $700 billion rescue package.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 6.1 percent, but economists said this reflected the fact that the official jobless rate does not count people who have given up looking for work. In the past year, the unemployment rolls have swelled by 2.2 million, to 9.5 million.

"It's a dismal report, and the worst thing about it is that it does not reflect the recent seizure that we've seen in the credit markets," said Michael T. Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, a research and trading firm in Greenwich, Conn. "We've lost jobs in nearly every area of the economy, and this is going to worse before it gets better because the credit markets have deteriorated basically on a daily basis for the last few weeks."

Among the 159,000 people who lost jobs across the country in September was Derek Slote, 21, of Tampa. He was let go from his job at the Red Onions silk-screening shop in Ybor City a few weeks ago, he said.

"We had to lay a few people off here, me included," Slote said. "But it was only for a week or so and then they hired me back."

There is the fear that he could lose his job through no fault of his own, he said, but he remained unconcerned, as there is always work for someone willing to do it.

"It is pretty rough out there," he said.

Most economists have concluded that, even in the rosiest outlook, the economy will continue to struggle well into next year. As anxiety spreads that banks may continue to hoard their dollars regardless of a rescue package from Washington, depriving businesses of capital needed to expand, more pessimistic forecasts call for the economy to remain weak through all of next year before a hesitant recovery in 2010.

Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, said a few industries in Florida have added jobs in the current economy, including health care, education and tourism. But he worries that Florida tourism may be headed for a fall because the economies of Canada and the United Kingdom are at or near recession, and the dollar has gotten stronger recently, which reduces the buying power of foreign tourists.

Information from Tribune reporter Keith Morelli and The New York Times was used in this report. Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865 or msasso@tampatrib.com.

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