Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Denver news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Des Moines news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Tampa Bay news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Charlotte news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Life in the U.S. is increasingly divided into two realities — one in which things have almost never been better and another in which it's hard to imagine them being worse.
Driving the news: Bankruptcies led more companies to announce job cuts last year than at any time in more than a decade, WSJ's Aisha Al-Muslim reports (subscription), citing data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Details: Despite the latest jobs report from the Labor Department showing the unemployment rate near a 50-year low, 2019 saw the third highest number of total layoffs in the decade, with nearly 600,000 people losing their jobs, a 10% increase over 2018.
- There were more job cuts related to bankruptcy in 2019 than in both 2008 and 2009, during the Great Recession.
- 2019 was the year the oft-invoked healthy American consumer carried the economy, but U.S. retailers announced 9,302 store closings, a 59% increase from 2018 and the highest number since Coresight Research began tracking the data in 2012.
The intrigue: Overall, job gains and growth have been confined to certain areas and industries.
- While the U.S. added an average of 180,000 jobs a month in 2019, the retail, mining and utilities sectors all saw net job losses for the year, as of November, which is the last month with available data.
- The lion's share of new jobs has been in health care, leisure and hospitality, and professional and business services.
Meanwhile, a new report from the Philadelphia Fed shows nine states are expected to see their economies shrink this year, even as the central bank and most economists expect the U.S. as a whole will avoid recession.
- The number of states projected to see contracting economies is the highest since July 2009.
What we're watching: The U.S. jobs report will be released Friday, Jan. 10, not today.
Go deeper: An unsettling future for millions of American jobs