BAD JOB FIGURES FOR CUYAHOGA, OHIO, USA FROM ZELLER

With the stock market down 675 today you probably don't need any more bad economic news. But research analyst George Zeller is dishing out more. He reports that the unemployment levels are "very discouraging" nationally, "unambiguously unfavorable" for Ohio and "alarmingly high" for Cuyahoga County. "The level of new claims in Cuyahoga County was alarmingly high in the new week," Zeller reports on unemployment figures. "The last week of July 2008 and all weeks of August and September 2008 saw weekly new claims exceeding 400,000 that is widely agreed to be a 'rule of thumb' indicating a national recession," Zeller reports. His full report is available at this site: http://www.nacs.net/~georgez/newclaims100408.pdf [1] Zeller reports that Ohio's 14,819 new claims in the first week of October remain at a level now 96 percetn higher than a 'job' growth level of 7,573 that is (or would be) normal at this time of the year during economic growth periods. All seven counties of Cleveland-Akron-Lorain-Elyria remain at levels of layoffs that are well above where they should be at this time of year. Zeller points to a rising level of unemployment claims accelerating. In the first quater the rise was 5.7 percent; 16.8 percent in the second quarter; and 47 percent in the third quarter. In just a week report in October - not statistically meaningful, he says - the rate is up an alarming 94 percent. Not good news for Ohio or Cuyahoga County. Let's build a convention center!