Most of my blog readers know that I feel that ’09 will be a better year compared to ’08 for Boston condo sales. However, certain economic variables could change my opinion, one being the rise in unemployment.
This is not good. From the Boston Herald:
The states jobless rate soared to 5.9 percent in November as employers shed another 8,000 jobs from payrolls.
The state has lost nearly 20,000 jobs since August – and more are on the way, economists say.
The numbers are terrible, said University of Massachusetts economist Alan Clayton-Matthews.
The increase in the jobless rate, from 5.5 percent in October, keeps Massachusetts well below the national rate of 6.7 percent. Massachusetts is generally thought to have entered a recession this past fall, while the nation slipped into recession late last year.
But the New England Economic Partnership recently estimated that the states rate could rise to as high as 8.3 percent during the current downturn, with as many as 135,000 positions eliminated.
Few industries were spared in Massachusetts last month.
Perhaps most worrisome, the health and education sectors – usually reliable industries during recessions – saw 1,500 fewer jobs in November, according to the state Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Just earlier this week, Boston Medical Center said it would cut 130 jobs, confirming that the recession is now battering the health-care industry. Universities such as Harvard are also undergoing belt tightening due to economic woes.
Those are sectors that were once thought to be recession-proof, said Clayton-Matthews.
Someone once told me, “The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.”
