by Calculated Risk on 1/08/2010 04:14:00 PM

First a summary of employment posts, and some other stories:
• Employment Report: 85K Jobs Lost, 10% Unemployment Rate for graphs of unemployment rate and a comparison to previous recessions.

• Seasonal Employment-Population Ratio, Part Time Workers, Temporary Workers

• Unemployed over 26 Weeks, Diffusion Index, Seasonal Retail Hiring

And other stories:
• From SacBee: Schwarzenegger declares budget emergency, proposes deep cuts

• From Bloomberg: Soured Non-Agency Mortgages Rise to 1.81 Million

• From Bloomberg: Tishman, BlackRock to Miss Stuyvesant Town Payment

HAMP 2nd Lien Program Update

In an email exchange with me, Treasury spokesperson Meg Reilly clarified the status of the HAMP 2nd Lien program today. Ms. Reilly told me the program is "moving forward", and although there are no "official contracts signed yet, ... servicers are committing to the program". She characterized the email received¹ by Tom Lawler from HAMP administration as "misleading" (I think that means "incorrect").

Ms. Reilly also wrote:

The Second Lien program is moving forward. Treasury has been working to create program infrastructure and technology, including a new platform that matches second liens to first liens modified under HAMP. Because there has not been a systematic method of notification to second lien holders when a first lien on the same property is modified, ramp up has taken some time. We have made enormous progress and continue to move forward with innovative technological development and program implementation and expect to finalize servicer contracts soon.

¹ Mr. Lawler has shared with me his email exchange with HAMP administration. His questions were straightforward concerning the status of the 2nd lien program: "Is there a list of servicers who have signed up for the Second Lien Modification Program? (2MP) The last time I checked with y'all, no one had signed up yet." And the response was: "That program is currently on hold and there is no list of servicers that registered before it was placed on hold." I considered the "on hold" important news, although Treasury has clarified that today. (ht to Diana Golobay at HousingWire who contacted Treasury first).