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April 25, 2024
California Department of Industrial Relations and Cal/OSHA Will Honor Workers’ Memorial Day at Four Events in California on April 28th-29th 2024. Cal/OSHA Joining Partners in Arcadia, Richmond, San Diego and San Francisco.

April 23, 2024
California Division of Workers' Compensation Launches Online Portal for Submission of QME Medical-Legal Reports

April 22, 2024
California Division of Workers’ Compensation Posts Updated Time of Hire Notice

April 22, 2024
Sullivan on Comp Launches ChatSOC. It's an Innovative Chatbot for California Workers' Compensation Professionals Integrated with an Authoritative Legal Treatise

There are positive signs that the U.S. economy may not be getting worse.  Job losses in the month of April 2009 were the smallest since last October of 2008.  According to the Labor Department non-farm payrolls were down a smaller than expected 539,000 last month.  That's a big drop from the upwardly revised loss of almost 700,000 jobs in March of 2009. 

That brings the total number of jobs lost in this recession to 5.7 million.  But although the disappearance of more than 500,000 jobs last month is nothing to smile about, there are positive signs from this report, according to economist Annetta Marcosca, of Societe General, "We're seeing a bit of a turn in terms of the severity of the job losses.  Those losses will continue for some time, but we're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now.  It was really hard to see that light at the beginning of this year." 

Unemployment rose to its highest in 25 years in April to 8.9 percent, and to 8.5 percent in March.  But, continued Annetta Marcosca, "We basically are looking now for a growth to turn positive in the 3rd Quarter.  So, there's some chance that the recession could actually end technically by the end of this Summer."

If the economy does turn positive by Summer's end the way Marcosca predicts, it doesn't necessarily mean employers will rush to create new jobs.  Most will still feel wary and will move forward cautiously.  Economists still expect unemployment to hit 10 percent even if the recession may be near an end.