It seems like everyone is holding their breath.

If you bounce around the job boards as much as I have been doing you begin to see trends. For the last few days I have noticed that there seems to be drop in the number of job postings as well as a rash of cancellations.

I noticed a similar "burp" just before the inauguration in January which was followed by a sudden spike in postings. This makes me wonder if companies are holding off with their job postings until Congress votes on the stimulus package. It is like like everyone is holding their breath, and waiting for the stimulus package to pass.

If this is true then it just goes to show how much people are depending on the stimulus package to fix everything. What people need to understand is that the stimulus package will not fix everything, it is just meant to overcome the current economic inertia and "stimulate" the economy in a positive direction.

This just goes to show how desperate people are for positive news, news that will give them a signal to move forward. Unfortunately the mainstream news media seems bent on piddling on everyone's chips by constantly posting negative news and passing over almost anything that is positive.

Let's face it, bad news sells soap far much better than good news, and with all the changes taking place in the news media selling soap has become more important than ever. As I stated in the previous post, this negative news is only compounding the inertia that the economy needs to overcome.

The mainstream news media needs to look at their effect on the economy, and change their focus. I am by no means suggesting that a news item be ignored because it is of a negative nature. What I am suggesting that the news media dig a little deeper for positive news to offset the negative.

Is this wishful thinking? Absolutely yes, but it's far better than what will happen if everyone continues to focus on negative news.

My advice to everyone is to stop holding their breath, and start breathing again. It won't hurt, I promise :-)