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The running numbers on the worst job crisis since the Great Depression have become the new national boxscore.

Even those with cursory interest in the economy are aware the national unemployment rate stood near or past 10 percent nationally for most of 2009.

Still others can reel off the current numbers for Missouri (9.6 percent) and Illinois (11 percent) with the authority of a seasoned economist.

Now, for the first time, policy-makers have a tool to regularly measure the depth of that economic pain at the state and regional level — a quarterly snapshot assessing underemployment and other comprehensive unemployment data on a state-by-state basis.

Since 1994, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has packaged the inclusive national jobs data into its monthly unemployment report. But on a state and local level, such statistics were available only once a year.

A bureau official said the new schedule, two years in development, fills a recession-ravaged public’s need for more information about the state of the economy and job market. And the picture isn’t very pretty.

When the bureau adds workers overqualified for their current positions (underemployed), employees involuntarily subjected to reduced hours and individuals no longer looking for a job to the equation, the national barometer for jobs misery soars to 17 percent.

"It’s not so interesting when the economy is humming along," said Tom Krolik, an analyst with the agency’s local area unemployment statistics division.

The new data provide a steady and reliable estimate of just how deeply the recession has cut into two states in which 773,000

(Illinois) and 137,500 (Missouri) displaced workers are currently drawing unemployment:

— More than 400,000 underemployed in Illinois and nearly 200,000 working below grade level in Missouri.

— Upwards of 350,000 now employed part time involuntarily in Illinois and an additional 153,000 struggling in part-time positions in Missouri.

— At least 30,000 "discouraged workers" (people who have stopped looking for jobs) in Illinois and an additional 10,000 in Missouri.

The state numbers are culled from the same surveys and databases the bureau uses to compile its monthly unemployment statistics.

"The thing that is so discouraging is that we’re not seeing much improvement," said Bonny Filandrinos, president of Staffing Solutions in Clayton, which provides temporary workers to health facilities and other area companies.

Filandrinos says she’s still waiting to see a bounce-back in demand for even temporary or part-time labor. "We’re still in trouble," she said.

Six Flags St. Louis got a glimpse of where the economy still stands earlier this month when 916 temporary 2009 employees attended a party to welcome back temporary workers returning for another season.

By the time Six Flags ends its 2010 recruitment drive — a process that begins with a Feb. 6 job fair — human resources director Colleen Welch estimates about half of the park’s employees will be returnees.

On average, she said, Six Flags sees about 40 percent of its workers return the following season.

Unlike days when the park’s employees swelled in the summer with high school and college students, many of the returnees are older, experienced workers driven to seasonal employment by a bum economy.

Bob Graf, 64, managed to carve out a decent living since abandoning the teaching profession 30 years ago for a second career as a freight broker.

As the middleman that small and mid-sized manufacturers retain to negotiate shipping contracts with trucking firms, Graf considers himself somewhat of an "amateur" economist.

When production slowed and orders started to drop in 2007, Graf figured the economy was going down the tubes.

He figured right.

Last year, the recession hit Graf where it hurts.

With his commissions in the tank, Graf took a second job as a seasonal security guard at Six Flags to help make ends meet. Seeing little improvement in the shipping business, he will be back this summer, supplementing the diminished income from his year-round position.

"I still make money, but it’s not what it was," said Graf, of south St. Louis County.

Still, there are signs of improvement that should eventually show up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ expanded database.

Jon Lauer, president of Professional Irrigation Systems in Wentzville, is planning to fill four to six positions lost to layoffs last year.

With commercial and residential construction still in decline, Lauer has changed the focus of his 10-year-old company to the servicing of existing irrigation systems as well as installing some at municipal athletic facilities. The workload, he said, is a far cry from the pre-recession days when 50- to 60-hour weeks were common.

For the past year and into the foreseeable future, he stressed, overtime is out of the question.

"We’re still in the hanging-in-there stage," he said.

As is Rob Huddleston, 41, of Florissant, who has been out of work since losing his welding job in August.

After dipping his toe in a market that seeks to pay experienced welders about two-thirds of what he earned last year, Huddleston decided to accept $5,000 in Workforce Investment Act funding to improve his skills in a retraining program.

The tight job market, he said, "does get discouraging sometimes."

But not so much that Huddleston will show up in the bureau’s category of workers who have put the brakes on the job search.

"I don’t look at giving up as an option," he said. "I know people get discouraged, but if you quit there is nowhere to go but further down."

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Most Europeans believe the worst of the economic crisis has yet to feed through to the labor market, the European Union said, citing a Eurobarometer survey.

Some 54 percent of respondents “believe the worst is still to come regarding the impact of the crisis on jobs,” while 38 percent say it already has reached its peak. The poll of more than 30,000 people in 30 countries across Europe was conducted from Oct. 23 through Nov. 18.

“Citizens have clearly identified jobs as their main concern, and the EU must continue to give its full attention and commitment to dealing with the crisis,” Margot Wallstroem, vice president of the European Commission, the EU executive in Brussels, said in a statement.

The number of people employed in the euro region declined 2.1 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the largest drop since the data were first collected in 1996, the EU’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. From the prior quarter, employment fell 0.5 percent.

“Even though the euro zone exited recession in the third quarter and activity is continuing to improve in the fourth quarter, growth is unlikely to be strong enough to generate net jobs for some considerable time,” Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight in London, said in a note one hour payday loan. “Unemployment still seems likely to rise significantly higher, thereby weighing down on consumer spending.”

Jobless Rate

Europe’s jobless rate has risen to 9.8 percent, the highest since December 1998, and is forecast by the commission to increase to 10.7 percent next year.

“Even if the European economies are showing signs of recovery, concern about the economic situation and unemployment is as widespread as in spring 2009,” the authors of the survey said. “Around half of Europeans consider unemployment to be the most important issue that their country faces.” Joblessness is “the top national concern” in 19 EU member states, up from 18 in the Eurobarometer survey carried out in June and July, today’s report showed.

Some 51 percent of Europeans deem jobs the most important issue, followed by the overall economy at 40 percent and inflation at 19 percent, tied with crime.

“The economic ‘feel-bad’ factor appears to be fading,” the authors of the report said. “For the first time since autumn 2007, short-term expectations about the economic situation are moving in a positive direction.”

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NEW YORK–The nation's retailers suffered miserably through November as a modestly positive start to the holiday shopping season wasn't strong enough to offset weak spending the rest of the month.

After posting two consecutive monthly sales gains after more than a year of declines, merchants collectively posted a surprise 0.3 percent decrease for November, compared with a year ago when business plummeted to historic lows as spooked shoppers clamped down after the financial meltdown. The sales decrease is an ominous sign for an economy in the early stages of a fragile recovery.

Now, the big worry is whether consumers won't go back to the stores until the final hours before Dec. 25 as they wait for even bigger discounts in a season that many analysts had hoped would generate sales that would be unchanged from a year ago.

According to sales results announced Thursday, most stores including department store chains Macy's Inc.,Children's Place Retail Stores Inc., teen merchant Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and discounter Target Corp. posted sales declines. Warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale Corp. posted a sales gain, though it's smaller than expected. Another exception was Limited Brands Inc., which runs Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. It reported a solid sales gain instead of the sales decrease that Wall Street projected.

The figures are based on sales at stores open at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailers' health because they exclude the effects of store expansions or closings.

The 0.3 percent drop, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Index, is far worse than the original 5 to 8 percent growth forecast, which was whittled down to 3 to 4 percent gain earlier this week. The weak results come on top of a 7.7 percent drop a year ago.

"This suggests that consumers are still under a significant amount of pressure from unemployment and job worries," Ken Perkins, president of retail research firm Retail Metrics.

After consumers showed some signs of life in September and October, merchants saw a sales lull throughout November until shoppers crowded stores and malls for the early morning specials for the day after Thanksgiving payday loan lenders.

According to reports, however, shoppers were picky about what they bought for themselves and others, focusing on discounted basics like microwaves, boots and bed sheets over the holiday weekend. The hot areas were electronics and online shopping, which is not reflected in most of Thursday's sales figures.

Economists say that depressed spending could persist for several years amid stubbornly high unemployment – now at 10.2 percent, the highest in 26 years.

Amid a challenging economy, Costco fared well, posting a 6 percent increase; results were less than the 8.1 percent gain that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected. However, half of that increase results from currency shifts and higher gas prices.

But discounter Target said that strong sales during Thanksgiving weekend were not enough to offset weak business the rest of the month, sending sales in stores open at least a year down 1.5 percent. The drop was bigger than the 0.5 percent drop analysts were expecting and were on top of the 10.4 percent decline in November 2008.

Discount retailer Fred's Inc. posted a 3.3 percent decline, a bigger drop than the 1.6 percent decrease analysts predicted. The retailer said its pharmacy department was strong in the month but discretionary spending by consumers remained weak.

Consumers "utilized layaways to a much greater extent than last year, deferring recognition of those sales until December," said CEO Bruce A. Efird.

Macy's sales in stores open at least a year fell 6.1 percent in November, a bigger than analysts expected.

Macy's said the month was hurt by a shift of a sales event and warm weather. Still, Macy's said it had strong traffic early on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when many Americans go shopping. Analysts had expected a 3.1 percent drop.

Abercrombie & Fitch's woes continued, with sales falling 17 percent, much worse than the 9.3 percent decline analysts predicted.

But Limited posted a 3 percent sales gain, surpassing estimates from analysts who had expected a 2.5 percent decline.

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Hungary’s central bank will probably cut the benchmark interest rate to the lowest in more than three years today to speed the country’s recovery from its worst recession in 18 years, which helps keep inflation in check.

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank in Budapest will lower the two-week deposit rate to 6.5 percent from 7 percent, reducing it for the fifth consecutive month, according to the forecast of 21 economists in a Bloomberg survey. One forecasts a cut to 6.75 percent. The decision will be announced at 2 p.m.

Policy makers shaved 2.5 percentage points off the key rate since July and said there is a room for further cuts as the economic slump blunts price pressures. Hungary was the first European Union country to get an International Monetary Fund-led bailout last year to avert a default during the credit crisis.

“The current market situation still provides sufficient room for the continuation of the easing cycle, without any major threat to financial stability,” Gyorgy Barta and Sandor Jobbagy, Budapest-based analysts at Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, said in a note to clients.

The forint fell to a record low against the euro in March. It has since been the sixth-best performer of the 26 emerging market currencies tracked by Bloomberg in the past six months, having gained 2.5 percent.

GDP Drops

Hungary’s economy contracted an annual 7.2 percent in the third quarter, worse than the 6.6 percent economists estimated, easing from a 7.5 percent slump in the second quarter. The central bank forecasts an economic contraction of 6.7 percent this year, the biggest decline since 1991.

The inflation rate fell to 4.7 percent in October from 4.9 percent in September as the recession muted the price-boosting effect of a July increase in the value-added tax. The central bank expects the rate to “significantly undershoot” its 3 percent target next year as demand falls instant payday loan.

“Cautious” interest rates cuts are “possible and desirable,” central bank Vice President Ferenc Karvalits told reporters on Nov. 16. Forward-rate agreements show investors expect the key rate to fall to 5.8 percent within the next six months.

Hungary’s interest rate cuts are trailing central banks such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank as well as countries in the region including Poland and the Czech Republic because policy makers looked to defend the forint after investors sold off local assets during the credit crisis.

Poland, Czech Repulic

Poland will keep its benchmark rate at 3.5 percent on Nov. 25, according to all 18 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The Czech central bank left its key rate at 1.25 percent on Nov. 5.

Hungary in October secured a 20 billion-euro ($29.6 billion) emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund, the EU and the World Bank and the central bank lifted the benchmark rate to 11.5 percent from 8.5 percent to avert a default.

Policy makers rolled back that increase by July, resuming rate cuts after a six-month pause as the forint strengthened from a record low against the euro in March as investor confidence began to recover after the government announced spending cuts.

Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai is cutting 1.3 trillion forint ($7.1 billion) in spending over two years to reduce the country’s financing need, in line with pledges to the IMF to limit the budget deficit. The cuts allow the central bank to pursue a “less restrictive” monetary policy, Finance Minister Peter Oszko said on Nov. 19.

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The euro zone economy jumped out of recession in the third quarter, data showed on Friday, but with slightly less spring than expected after the area’s top three economies fell short of market forecasts.

Gross domestic product in the 16 countries using the euro rose 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter after five consecutive quarters of shrinking output, but was 4.1 percent lower year-on-year.

Economists polled by Reuters had on average forecast quarterly growth of 0.5 percent and a 3.9 percent annual decline.

Germany, France and Italy all reported a third-quarter increase in economic output, but the German 0.7 percent quarterly growth was below expectations of 0.8 percent, the French 0.3 percent increase only half of what was expected and the Italian 0 faxless payday loans.6 percent fell short of the 0.7 percent consensus.

The growth ends the deepest economic downturn in Europe since World War Two, brought on by a global financial crisis, but economists say recovery is likely to remain fragile.

The European Commission forecast on November 3 that fourth-quarter growth would slow to 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2009 and then to 0.1 percent in the first two quarters of 2010.

Growth is seen accelerating steadily from the third quarter of 2010 to reach 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2011.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Dale Hudson)

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Research In Motion has rolled out an updated version of its top-end BlackBerry Bold, aiming to reassert its dominance in the professional market at a time when its retail consumer business has come under growing pressure from Apple’s iPhone.

The latest Bold, part of a series of new devices that Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM plans to bring to market in the next 12 months, is designed for business executives, lawyers, politicians and other professionals, a market that the company still rules.

But in the broader consumer market, RIM has seen stiff competition from Apple’s iPhone and handsets from rivals such as Nokia.

The new Bold is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, which hit the market last year, and replaces the original Bold’s track ball with an optical track pad. The new model also features a faster Web browser.

The Bold’s new features are aimed at defending the business market from the Apple threat, and also at attracting wealthier retail users.

“RIM still isn’t in a position where it has any one device that can be considered an iPhone killer,” said independent technology analyst Carmi Levy.

“Apple is in a position of power in this market and you are either aware of their strategy and you counter it in some way, or you find another business to be in payday loans with no fax.”

Apple reported on Monday it sold 7.4 million iPhones in its last quarter and it posted earnings that handily beat Wall Street forecasts, pushing its stock to record highs.

RIM, meanwhile, has stumbled. Late last month, it reported results and an outlook that disappointed investors and sent its shares tumbling more than 15 percent.

APPS AND SECURITY

RIM’s main counter to the iPhone is the BlackBerry Storm, a well-selling touchscreen smartphone similar to Apple’s device.

RIM unveiled a new version of the Storm last week, and it has to continue to wow retail users with sleek, fashionable handsets if it is to succeed against Apple.

Software is equally important, said Research Capital analyst Nick Agostino.

From games to calendars and from horoscopes to news summaries, applications are playing an increasingly important role in attracting users. Indeed, the success of Apple’s application store prompted RIM to open its own in April.

As apps continue to get more sophisticated, RIM could find an advantage in its reputation for providing what some view as unmatched security on its smartphones, Agostino said. 

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A government watchdog says federal officials weren’t entirely honest with the public about the health of the first 9 financial firms that got federal bailouts, according to a report released Monday.

Bailout special inspector general Neil Barofsky says in an audit that Treasury Department officials painted an overly rosy picture, creating "unrealistic expectations," when they called the first bailout banks "healthy" institutions that would be able to lend more with government help.

"It is not our intent to suggest that government officials should make public their concerns over the financial health of individual institutions, but rather that government officials should be particularly careful, even in a time of crisis, of describing their actions (and the rationales for such actions) in an accurate manner," the report stated.

Treasury appeared to disagree with the assessment of the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SigTARP), saying "people may differ" on the phrasing of the original bailout announcements.

"Any review of the announcements must be considered in light of the unprecedented circumstances in which they were made," wrote TARP chief Herb Allison in response to the SigTARP report.

Separately, the new audit looks into charges that federal officials strong-armed Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) into completing its planned purchase of Merrill Lynch, even as BofA worried about mounting losses at Merrill in late 2008. Further, the report looks into whether officials pressured BofA to conceal those losses from its shareholders.

Barofsky gives the major players the benefit of the doubt. He acknowledges that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wanted the deal to go through, fearing the potential failure of Merrill Lynch and the "collateral damage to the economy."

But Barofsky "found nothing to indicate Treasury and Federal Reserve officials instructed Bank of America executives to withhold the public disclosure of losses."

SigTARP is also involved in a separate criminal investigation, led by the New York Attorney General’s Office, into the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch merger. The report doesn’t mention that investigation.

Barofsky’s office was created by the 2008 law that established the $700 billion federal bailout program. This audit is the fourth completed so far by SigTARP in recent months; the first looked at how banks said they used their bailout dollars.

SigTARP has opened 35 ongoing criminal and civil investigations looking for fraud, with a focus on banks that falsely applied for a bailout and those that used the TARP name in scams.

In the newest audit of the bailouts to the first 9 firms, SigTARP points out that the Federal Reserve had concerns about the financial health of several of these firms and that former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was concerned that one would even "outright fail."

The report says that officials’ portrayal of the bailout banks as healthy eventually contributed to a loss of credibility in TARP, when the firms did not lend more and when more bailouts were given to Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Bank of America.

"Ultimately, the lesson is straightforward: accuracy and transparency will enhance the credibility of Government programs like TARP and restore taxpayer confidence in the policy makers who manage them," the report said. "Inaccurate statements, on the other hand, could have unintended long-term consequences that could damage the trust that the American people have in their government." 

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Contegra Construction of Edwardsville has begun work on a two-story, 21,000-square-foot headquarters office building for The Kean Insurance Group at 135 West Adams Street in downtown Kirkwood.

Keane, which leases space at 10777 Sunset Office Drive in Sunset Hills, is one of the largest brokers of professional liability insurance for physicians in the nation. In addition to St. Louis, it has branch offices in Austin, Texas; Chicago; and Kansas City empire payday loans.

The building will host 60 employees of Keane and KIG Healthcare Solutions, Inc, an affiliate. The estimated completion value is $6 million.

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U.S. consumer sentiment rose in late September to the highest since January 2008 as expectations of an economic rebound gathered momentum, a survey showed on Friday.

The data added to indications the economy is pulling out of a lengthy recession more powerfully than many analysts had expected a few months ago, although doubts persist about how much staying power the rebound may have.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final index of sentiment for September rose to 73.5 from 65.7 in August. This was above economists’ median expectation for a reading of 70.3, according to a Reuters poll.

The index of consumer expectations rose to 73.5, the highest in two years, from 65.0 in August.

U.S. stock indexes initially bounced on the news but then slipped, while Treasury debt prices were off slightly and the dollar fell against the yen and euro.

“The same pace of gains in confidence continued in late September as the economic news reaching consumers grew even more positive,” the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said in a statement. “Consumers reported that the economy had already begun to improve and anticipated further gains in the year ahead.”

The index of current conditions rose to 73.4 in late September from 66.6 in August.

“It looks like people feel better about both current conditions and the future. If we can only get business sentiment to improve a bit more, we’d probably go from a yellow light to a green light,” said Gary Thayer, macro strategist with Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis. “If business sentiment picks up, the job situation would improve and consumer sentiment will improve further.”

The survey’s 12-month economic outlook jumped to 88 in late September from 69 in late August.

“The data provide considerable evidence that the economy has already begun to recover,” the Reuters/UMich statement said. “Nonetheless, the pace of gains in consumer spending are still expected to be slower than usual due to expected lags in job and income gains as well as the renewed desires of consumers to save and the more limited availability of credit.”

(Additional reporting by Ellen Freilich)

(Reporting by John Parry; Editing by James Dalgleish and Dan Grebler)

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The first 10 firms due to list on China’s Nasdaq-style second board, ChiNext, plan to sell shares at prices 50 percent above their mainboard peers, just as worries over speculation spurred officials to tighten trading rules.

After gauging investor demand, the 10 start-up companies, including software developer Beijing Ultrapower and outdoor sportswear maker Toread, have decided on prices for their shares that average 55 times their 2008 earnings.

That compares with an average price/earnings ratio of 36 for other initial public share offerings this year on the mainland.

“Growth potential, rather than past performance, is what investors are looking at, so a high PE ratio doesn’t necessarily mean they’re over-priced,” said Jiang Jianrong, analyst at Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co.

“But without doubt it will be quite a speculative market at the beginning because it’s new and the companies are very small.”

To curb risks, the second board for start-ups, to be launched as soon as next month in China’s southern boomtown of Shenzhen, will set an 80 percent limit on share price movements during the first day of trade, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange said on Thursday.

China is hoping that ChiNext could provide badly needed financing for the private sector, which has difficulty obtaining bank loans but is crucial to creating jobs and sustaining growth.

Beijing is also hoping that the market could become a cradle for China’s own future versions of Microsoft or Intel, helping to cut the economy’s reliance on manufacturing.

The 10 companies, which also include drug producer Chongqing Lummy Pharmaceutical and Beijing Lanxum Technology Co, a provider of office information system services, will take subscriptions from investors on Friday.

NARROW THE GAP

“Our rival Fuji Xerox is stronger than us both in branding and in financial strength,” said Lanxum Chairman Chi Yanming. “Listing on the second board would help us to narrow the gap.”

Lanxum, which is selling 5.3 million shares, said on Thursday that it plans to raise 477 million yuan ($70 million), 73 percent more than its previous fund-raising target, after pricing its IPO at 18 yuan per share, or 51.49 times its 2008 earnings.

Lepu Medical, a medical equipment maker, plans to raise 1.19 billion yuan, more than double its target, after pricing its IPO at 29 yuan a share, or 53.54 times its 2008 earnings. Lepu shares were 117.12 times over-subscribed during the road show.

Investor fervour is initially likely to push stocks on the start-up board to excessively high valuations, helping to create new Chinese billionaires.

“Some speculation is not always a bad thing. It provides easy money to private companies which had been at a disadvantage in financing compared with state-owned rivals,” said Shenyin & Wanguo’s Jiang. 

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