Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Unemployment Hits a High | With Labor Day right around the corner, you'd think the federal government could serve up a little positive news as we head into the long weekend, right? Apparently not. The unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent, the Labor Department reports today, the highest it's been since June 1983. [CNN Money]

The best way to get out of jury duty? Use the recession as an excuse! Kindly explain to the judge that you're already having difficulty making ends meet and if you're forced to take off any additional time, you may very well lose your home. (Mentioning you also happen to be a single parent and you take care of your sick aunt isn't such a bad idea either.) You may just find yourself in front of a judge like the one interviewed in today's Times, who says he's doing his best to "be sensitive to the economic times" and has been dismissing prospective jurors who can't afford to be there. If you're unemployed, however, it's a whole different story.More

• Some luxury fashion companies think (or are hoping, at least) that the recession has "bottomed out," and the tide is "slowly turning." Let's hope so! [WWD]
• Related: Saks is hoping to now "wean wealthy customers from discounts" and "re-educate" them to pay full-price again. Good luck! [NYP]
• How are fashion mags hoping to remain relevant during the turbulent times? By hitching their titles to TV shows, naturally. Not that the strategy always pays off as editors might have hoped, as Elle (Stylista) and Marie Claire (Running in Heels) have discovered. [AdWeek]
• Homelessness is now "having a fashion moment." Make a note of it. [Cut]More

Signs of a Comeback | Things appear to be looking up for the art market. After five months of consecutive falls, prices are finally beginning to rise again as buyers become more confident and auction houses get a bit more realistic about prices. The renewed confidence appears to be having a positive effect on the auction houses themselves: Shares of Sotheby's have nearly tripled over the last five months. And galleries seem to be more bullish, too. Earlier this week, it was reported that Larry Gagosian is planning to add to his chain of eight galleries with a location in Athens. But not every segment of the market is bouncing back. Experts say that areas that became over-inflated in recent years due to "speculative bidding" are still losing value. Steve Cohen isn't out of the woods just yet, in other words. [Wealth Bulletin]

Things Are Looking Up! | The real estate market has recovered, clearly: Home prices in 20 American cities only declined 15.4 percent during the month of June as compared to a year earlier. But that's a slight improvement from the month of May, so we must be headed in the right direction. Right? Hello? [Daily Finance]

Glamping Your Way Through a Recession | You've heard of the "staycation." One more travel trend that is now benefiting from the recession, at least according to spin doctor Mark Penn: glamping. For people who don't have any interest in going camping and actually roughing in, but can't really afford to stay in a $650 a night hotel room in Europe for a week, glamping—or glamorous camping—is all the rage, Penn says. More

Jimmy Choos and Ziplock Bags Don't Go Together | These are difficult economic times, sure. And keeping up appearances isn't easy, especially if you follow the advice of some experts who argue that you need to look even better than usual during a financial downturn. But you can only cut costs and stoop so far, you know? If you insist on buying really expensive heels even when you can't afford them, but you then wrap your feet in plastic bags so you can return the shoes in a few weeks, you probably should just do your shoe shopping at Payless and call it a day. Really. We'll forgive you. [HuffPo]

Good News/Bad News | As always, there's both some good and bad economic news today. The not-too-encouraging: The New York State Department of Labor reports that New York City's unemployment rate jumped to 9.6 percent last month, "surpassing the national unemployment rate for the first time since the recession began." Much better: Morgan Stanley is hiring 400 new employees! (If you don't know anything about emerging markets, foreign exchange, and/or derivatives, however, don't even bother taking the time to hunt for the latest version of your resume.) Regardless, feel free to focus on whichever piece of news suits you, depending on whether you're the glass-half-full or glass-half-empty type. [NYT, AP]

You may have been thinking the fact that you were laid off recently gave you a pretty good excuse to sleep in a little bit late, occasionally spend the mornings in your pajamas, and maybe even go an entire day without showering. How wrong you were! As the Wall Street Journal's Christina Binkley explains it, you'll need to get up earlier, dress better, and possibly take remedial English classes, too:More

Limitless Credit: Just What Consumers Need | Big banks have lost hundreds of billions of dollars as the economic downturn has left millions of Americans unable to pay their credit card bills. So that would make this the perfect time to introduce a new card with no spending limits, right? No? Oh, well. It seems Chase is now planning to give American Express a run for its money with its new, "limitless" "Sapphire" card. The good news, clearly: Jamie Dimon's debt-collecting good squad should have no problem keeping busy for the foreseeable future. [NYP, Bloomberg]

The Rebounding Recession | So much for all those economists who announced last week that the recession was over. After a month of consecutive weekly gains, stocks were once again pounded today with the Dow dropping 186 points, or 2%, as "fear spread around the globe that an economic rebound may be further off than previously thought." But it was fun while it lasted, right? [WSJ, NYT]

The financial news of the past year has provided plenty of inspiration to entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the misery. But will the public rush to stores to scoop up a video game called "Bailout Wars" (above)? Will people bypass their chewing gum of choice and seek out "Meltdown Gum" instead? And would anyone in their right mind be interested in a football jersey with Bernie Madoff's name on the back? Only time will tell, of course. In the meantime, you'll find a collection of very timely—and very dubious—trademarks, all for products ripped from the financial news headlines of the past year, below. Coming soon to a store near you! Or, you know, not.More

The End-of-Recession Cocktail | Is the recession over? Who knows, really, but Vanity Fair has already taken the liberty of having a bartender whip up a special "Is the recession over?" cocktail. Made of blueberries, vodka and crème de cassis, it's designed to be consumed while addressing that very question with friends. Unfortunately, it also takes a full week to make, which means by the time it's ready, the economy may have recovered and already slipped into another recession. So, you know, maybe it would be better to just stick to a beer or whatever? [VF]

The News You've Been Waiting For | The Wall Street Journal reports that economists are "nearly unanimous" that President Obama should reappoint Ben Bernanke to another term as Federal Reserve chairman. Even better? "[T]he majority of the economists The Wall Street Journal surveyed during the past few days said the recession that began in December 2007 is now over." Now over! Break out that overpriced outfit you purchased during the good ol' days of 2007, reserve a table at the club you last frequented back when you had a job and you could afford to pay $400 for a bottle, and celebrate. Naturally, you can look forward to finding another job any moment now. [WSJ]

Is that economic improvement we see? The Labor Department announced today that the unemployment rate dropped from 9.5 percent to 9.4 percent last month—even though analysts had been expecting it to increase—and while 247,000 American jobs were lost during July, that's the fewest number of losses since last August. It this evidence that things are going to be peachy keen from here on out? Not really. More