If the recession is over, why is no one is hiring?
Another 233,000 jobs are lost in August, economists indicate

If the recession really is over, someone forgot to send the memo to the people in the personnel department … because no one is hiring.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls likely shrank by 233,000 in August, economists surveyed by MarketWatch said, ahead of Friday’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. See Economic Calendar.

The report will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

The unemployment rate is expected to tick higher to 9.5% in August from 9.4% in July, according to the survey.

If the declines hold up, August would be the 20th consecutive month of job losses — the longest losing streak since the Depression of the 1930s. If the forecasts are right, nearly 7 million jobs will have been lost since the recession began in December 2007.