by Laura Conaway

description
Engineer27/Planet Money Flickr pool

Office closes: "Rows of PCs, ready to be packed up."

Financial proofreader Leah Casner sent this Recession Haiku the other day:

Heavy cloud laden

Laid off morning mourning job

Nursing a cold tea

And yes, she'd just been laid off.

The news this morning is that the number of people on unemployment insurance dipped last week for the first time 20 weeks, by 15,000, to 6.7 million. Considering that economists expect unemployment for May to top 9 percent — the number's out tomorrow — it's no surprise that Ian Shepherdson writes, "Feeble green shoots don't stop companies laying off staff, still less actually starting to hire again."

Hang in there, folks. We've got a ways to go on this one.

Bonus: The person who took that picture up there just got another job.