Walmart symbolizes America; 6-to-1 odds dog job seekers

GOOD DAY FOR: Walmart and apple pie, after a 60 Minutes-Vanity Fair survey found that half of respondents named the retail giant as the business that best symbolizes America today. Walmart handily beat runners-up Google, Microsoft, the NFL, and Goldman Sachs. In other findings, more men would like to spend a week as George Clooney (26 percent) than President Obama (24 percent), and half of the respondents were in favor of taxing the wealthiest Americans by at least 50 percent. (AP in Yahoo! News)

BAD DAY FOR: Landing a job, after the Labor Department said there are 14.5 million officially unemployed people trying to get 2.4 million available full-time jobs—a 6-to-1 ratio, the worst since the government started tracking job openings in 2000. Labor economists say that even though the rate of layoffs is slowing considerably, companies are too nervous about the economy to ramp up hiring. (The New York Times)

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