Between December 2007 and July 2008, the number of recorded layoffs grew about 1,641 each week. That rate would top out at 7,599 per week in July 2008; in a post for Business Insider, Political Calculations cited high gasoline and oil prices for the change. Now, unemployment insurance benefit claims are up to 2,800 per week, with the most recent spike beginning on July 7, 2012.
"Like the sharp increase in 2008, we believe that today's high oil and gasoline prices are driving the sharp increase in the trend for U.S. layoffs," wrote Political Calculations. "And though the adjustment of employers to high gasoline prices in the U.S. would indeed appear to be different this time, with a steady rather than a sudden adjustment, the outcome is still the same: an increasing number of layoffs each week in the U.S."
Do you think gas prices will continue to influence employee layoffs?
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(Photo credit:
Political Calculations)