Any U.S. job market recovery is at least several months away, staffing industry executives say, citing comments from customers, weak consumer spending and evidence in the December jobs report that employers are cutting hours and overtime.

The economy shed 524,000 jobs outside the farm sector last month, fewer than expected, and the unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent, the highest since January 1993. Job losses in October and November were bigger than initially estimated.

"When we look at where companies are, in the conversations they're having, we anticipate continued job losses for at least a couple quarters," said Jeff Joerres, chief executive of Manpower Inc, one of the world's largest staffing and outplacement firms.

The North American chief of rival Adecco SA said a decline in overtime and total hours worked suggests more job losses ahead, since employers typically cut hours before they eliminate jobs.

If you want a glimpse of the fundamental moral obscenity that underlies our bold new era of hope and change, look no further than Barack Obama's promise this week to "overhaul" Social Security and Medicare. This effort to cut back on support for the sick, the old, the weak, the unfortunate and the abandoned will be a "central part" of the new administration's economic program, a linchpin of its struggle to curb federal spending, Obama declared.

As GM chief slides, autoworkers forced to accept cuts, strike provision

A little-noticed provision buried in the Bush Administration's $13.4 billion loan package to General Motors will prohibit the United Auto Workers from launching a strike as long as the company receives funds from the federal government.

WASHINGTON: As Congress and the incoming Obama administration plan the nation's next major investments in green energy, they need to take a hard, clear-eyed look at Department of Energy data documenting corn-based ethanol's stranglehold on federal renewable energy tax credits and subsidies.

An Environmental Working Group (EWG) report released today uses data from a little noticed analysis buried in an April 2008 report from the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). The information unearthed by EWG shows that solar, wind and other renewable energy sources have struggled to gain significant market share with modest federal support. Meanwhile, corn-based ethanol has accounted for fully three-quarters of the tax benefits and two-thirds of all federal subsidies allotted for renewable energy sources in 2007.

The corn-based ethanol industry received $3 billion in tax credits in 2007, more than four times the $690 million in credits available to companies trying to expand all other forms of renewable energy, including solar, wind and geothermal power.

Personal consumption may fall this year to levels not seen since 1942, some economists say.

The pullback in US consumer spending, which accelerated ahead of the holiday season, appears likely to be sharper in 2009 than any such retrenchment since World War II.

That sobering forecast from economists goes a long way toward explaining why they generally support the idea of a large government stimulus effort, as President-elect Obama urged Thursday.

As large as it is, the stimulus won't fill the hole created by consumers. The pullback from shopping malls won't last forever, but for now, it's a reaction to tough times that is making these times even harder.