Here’s a good analysis of what to expect in the near future by Nigel Gault, IHS Global Insight, based on the layoffs already announced and “in the pipeline”:

There is no end in sight to the huge payroll declines, as high-profile lay-off announcements keep coming, and initial unemployment insurance claims have moved above 600,000 for the first time in this cycle. February might be even worse than January. We have now lost 3.6 million jobs since the cycle peak in December 2007, with 1.8 million lost in the last three months alone. We are heading for total job losses in the 6-7 million range and an unemployment rate well above 9%.

In my continuing attempt to look on the bright side, you’ve got to love an environment that drives over-the top quotes like “slow motion train wreck” and “massively intensified”!

But where is the top of the hockey stick?

WSJ’s Real Time Economics compiles a list of sobering analyses of the latest employment figures.

The good news: an optomist would point out that at least it can’t go over 100%!