If you look underneath the 4.2-percent job-loss numbers, you'll see some important counter-indications,

If a business is losing market share, it tends to think about what it can do to reinvigorate its product, make it more attractive, ... Only on the margins has the AFL-CIO done that.

The work force could be short as many as 20 million college-educated workers by 2031,

Demand for labor will begin exceeding supply within just five years, ... Unless these shortages are resolved, the United States will be unable to maintain its historic rate of economic growth, with the work force being short almost 5 million workers by 2011 and almost 36 million workers by 2031.

This gives a sense that while there's a lot of noise in the system,

We will continue to reduce costs by improving efficiency in all our operational and business processes, ... We will bring service performance to even higher levels. We will use the best technology to make the mail a rich source of information both for our customers and our operations managers. We will achieve all this with an energized, customer-focused work force.