Where Have All the Jobs Gone/Long Time Passing:

Mary Travers and her fellow troubadours famously sang the anti-war song back in the 1960s, asking about "flowers," but today they'd gain more audience share if the words were about the economy.

Peter Goodman of The New York Times reports on the shriveling job market:

From the beginning of the recession in December 2007 through July of this year, job openings declined 45 percent in the West and the South, 36 percent in the Midwest and 23 percent in the Northeast.

Shrinking job opportunities have assailed virtually every industry this year. Since the end of 2008, job openings have diminished 47 percent in manufacturing, 37 percent in construction and 22 percent in retail. Even in education and health services — faster-growing areas in which many unemployed people have trained for new careers — job openings have dropped 21 percent this year. Despite the passage of a stimulus spending package aimed at shoring up state and local coffers, government job openings have diminished 17 percent this year.