Yesterday we asked: What is a sackable offense at your place of work? And you gave us plenty of responses, from your own personal stories to the larger questions about getting sacked. 

On facebook, James wrote: 

Employers are enjoying their control over employees. I know of a company that is so petty, they are terminating all their long time employees and hiring newbies for less... Things are going to get worse before they get better; if they ever do!

President Obama begins a lengthy trip to Asia this weekend, starting with a visit to India to talk about job creation and increasing exports. Days after Republicans had significant victories in the midterm elections, he'll arrive in Mumbai with a delegation of more than 200 businessmen and women to attend a business conference. The president may also try to make a deal with the Indian government as they revamp their military aircrafts. What kind of reception will the President and his American delegation of businessmen have there? What should their goals be? 

Today the Labor Department reported 151,000 new jobs added to the economy — the most in five months. Some are saying this could be a sign that the country's financial situation is improving, and that the private sector could finally be gaining traction again. We're joined now by Wall Street Journal reporter Kelly Evans, who says it might help the labor market finally lift off. 

One day before the mid-term election and predictions are in. Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, looks ahead to election day and forecasts the after-effects of its results.

Voters head to the polls tomorrow, but non-political happenings continue apace: the Fed will meet to discuss what to do about interest rates and the economy. Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC Radio, doesn't see the interest rate increasing, but sees the Fed pumping more money into the economy, to try and jumpstart it.

The economy lost a net total of 95,000 jobs last month, keeping the unemployment rate unchanged at 9.6 percent, as a wave of government layoffs in September outpaced weak hiring in the private sector. 

The monthly Labor Department report is the final one before the November elections and comes at a time when incumbent Democrats are eager to tout an improvement in the jobs situation. While total government jobs fell by 159,000 for the month, private sector companies added just 64,000 jobs.

But these numbers don't necessarily give a complete picture of the job situation for most Americans. We've been asking for your personal jobs report and we want to continue the question: Are you more hopeful or more frustrated about your job situation?

We'll get another gauge of the economic recovery when tomorrow's jobs report for September comes out. The monthly report from the Department of Labor gives the government's official unemployment rate, but we're continuing our monthly check-in with you. What's your personal jobs report? Do you feel scarier or safer compared to a month ago?

Here's what some of you said last month.

The government wants to create new jobs. Most new jobs come from small businesses. Logic might suggest that the government should support small businesses, yet that’s proven hard to do in practice. Why? And, are there better ways for the government to encourage businesses to hire more people?

The military ads we see on television often claim that enlisted men and women have the opportunity to gain valuable job skills while serving our country. Whether the dream is to be an engineer or a journalist, the promise is that the military can help that dream to come true. But are these promises real? And what do real veterans face when trying to find work?

For many years, an integral part of the American dream has involved making it to the middle class. We associate the phrase with steady, secure work, home ownership and providing for a comfortable — if not lavish — lifestyle for our family. But has middle class America fundamentally changed since the Great Recession hit? Do people that once saw themselves as solidly middle class see themselves differently now?

This week economists officially declared the recession over, as of June, 2009.  So now what will the recovery look like?

In a troubled economy, goes conventional wisdom, one thing you can always depend on is the price of gold. That has never been more true, now that the price of gold has hit just over $1,200 an ounce.  Does this mean that we are seeing a modern day gold rush?

It's the end of summer, and that means that businesses around the country are being emptied of their interns. Early this summer, they arrived with their youth and their ambition. As the air turns crisp, they go home, leaving behind neatly stacked piles of folders, well organized databases, and, perhaps, a good impression.  

But a small group of those interns left something else behind: a wad of cash. Today, a growing number of young people – or their parents – are paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of working an unpaid internship.

All eyes are on the Department of Labor's monthly jobs report, scheduled to be released this morning. Economists predict the report will show small gains in the jobs market - between 40,000 and 70,000. But they are concerned that if job creation numbers are too low, the overall unemployment rate could still rise - making the report an indicator that the economy could be heading for a "double-dip" back into recession.

What is your personal jobs report? How would you characterise YOUR job situation? Is it scarier or safer than last month? Let us know in the comments below or text the word TAKE to 69866.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release a new jobs report this morning. Since the start of the economic downturn, the dire unemployment situation has been described in grim and abstract numbers: unemployment is at 9.5 percent; one in six Americans are receiving government assistance; and an estimated 8.5 million factory jobs have been lost since November 2007.

But behind the numbers are the human costs of unemployment. In a new book, “Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory,” photographer Bill Bamberger and author Cathy N. Davidson capture the faces and stories behind the workers in Mebane, North Carolina, who lost their jobs when White Furniture Company closed its doors in 1993. The book and its gripping photos show tell the stories of personal loss and struggle for workers whose entire lives were turned upside down.

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." —Winston Churchill

We talked yesterday about how the income gap may have caused, at least in part, the financial collapse. Today we get two new studies that shed even more light on the cataclysmic forces currently moving our nation. Here's the first headline: The Institute of Policy Studies says that executives at the 50 firms with the most layoffs during the economic crisis took home nearly $4 Million more than a typical CEO. The worst offenders include the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett-Packard. And here's the second: The National Employment Law Project says the jobs that were lost in 2008-2009 were in higher wage industries, but job growth in 2010 has been disproportionately by industries with lower wages.

Going back to school for a masters or doctorate degree may seem like a smart move in this economy. And universities are happy to get grad students, upon whom they rely for inexpensive, labor-intensive research and to teach undergraduates. But while getting a PhD might stave off the job search for five to seven years, the prospects for getting a teaching job at a university afterwards are slim. The long-term professional positions will be few and far between. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that while academic positions are expected to increase by 15 percent over the next ten years, most of those positions will be for graduate assistants and non-tenured instructors. Is it a "social trap", with academic hopefuls getting the short end of the stick? 

The 9.5 percent unemployment rate does not count a huge number of Americans: People who are out of a job and have given up looking. With millions of people out of work and competing with each other for the small percentage of open jobs, it makes sense that a significant portion will call it quits – at least for the time being – and cease searching for employment all together.

If you're unemployed but not looking for work, tell us: At what point did you stop looking for a job?

Steven Slater is getting his 15 minutes of fame, and he will eventually get his day in court as well. Slater lost it after an argument with a passenger. He used the P.A. system to deliver a profanity-laden tirade, grabbed a couple beers out of the galley fridge, deployed the inflatable slide and zoomed down the slide to unemployment.

The Labor Department's jobs report for July, released last Friday, showed overall unemployment stayed the same at 9.5 percent, but that the economy lost 5,600 temporary jobs. This ended nine months of gradual increases. Concerned economists say temporary jobs can be seen as a leading economic indicator of how businesses will proceed in the hiring of permanent workers. 

While private employers added 71,000 in July, the economy lost 131,000 jobs overall and unemployment remained unchanged at 9.5 percent. Many of the job losses were due to the expected reduction in Census Bureau staff. The numbers put increased pressure on Washington to find ways to help the economy.

Lakshman Achutan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, analyzes the report and what it could mean for you and where jobs are headed in the months ahead.