Financial crisis choking job markets

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Faith in the job market has dimmed for many U.S. job seekers in recent weeks due to the financial meltdown on Wall Street, observers said.

"Everybody is at risk," said John Challenger, chief executive of the global job service Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which also tracks employment trends.

The collapsing financial market means businesses are finding it difficult to borrow money to fund expansions. That translates to fewer jobs and less money spent by wage-earners. The downward trend is a "negative spiral," Challenger told CNN.

Job openings in the financial sector have been hard to find and difficult to obtain. "I've been to interviews where there were 37 people," Alicia Zajaceskowski, 40, who was laid off in July from her loan officer job in San Diego, said to CNN.

The unemployment rate is at a five-year high at 6.1 percent and the competition, nationwide, includes 9.4 million people looking for work, the report said.

"Employment expectations are down substantially," John Dooney, manager of strategic research at The Society for Human Resource Management, told CNN.