An Army of Underemployed

By Marisa Di Natale in West Chester 9/11/2009

The job market is showing clear signs of improvement, although improvement in the current context means that job cuts are getting smaller, not that unemployment is abating. Perhaps most encouraging is the sharp slowdown in layoffs at temporary help staffing firms, an industry that typically leads the rest of the job market both going into and coming out of recessions. Measures of business confidence and hiring intentions also have perked up in recent months. The National Federation of Independent Businesses' index of hiring intentions broke even in August, for the first time since October of last year. The ISM nonmanufacturing survey's employment index is still showing contraction, but its 43.5 reading in August was the slowest pace of decline since last fall. The Moody's Economy.com survey of business conditions has also shown marked improvement in recent weeks; the overall business confidence index turned positive in early August and has stayed in expansionary territory since then....

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