It's bad enough that companies are shedding jobs in this crisis. But what is really driving the unemployment rate up is the lack of new jobs being created: But the real problem in the U.S. labor market today isn’t layoffs. It’s a hiring freeze that is gripping most work places - and has not gotten nearly as much attention as the job cuts.“The hiring rate has caved. That’s why the job market is as bad as it is,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Economy.com. “Given this low hiring rate, unemployment would still rise even if layoffs were falling.” …During the last recession in 2001, there was not nearly as sharp a drop in hiring and job openings. In fact, the hiring and job opening rates, which compare new hires and openings to the overall number of workers, are both at their lowest level on record.And economists say that even if the number of layoffs peaks soon, the pace of hiring and job openings may remain...(Read Full Post)