Last week’s news that the unemployment rate is soaring wasn’t met with surprise; but what is news is how many educated and employable people are jumping on the jobless bandwagon. As the Economix blog smartly reports, the number of college graduates with jobs fell 282,000 last month - but just 2,000 of them have looked for a job in the last four weeks. So why are 280,000 educated and unemployed moving from Midtown to Slowdown?  It’s a hard fall from Wall Street to the workforce, and fired financiers are no different from the rest of us; its tough to find a job in Christmastime. 

So what are all those idle bankers betting on this holiday season?  Well, depends which bank fired them!

Citigroup - Abercrombie and Fitch (NYSE:ANF)

We all know the kind of guy that goes to work at Citigroup - he wore the polo shirt with the collar up and pretended he knew what he was talking about while tagging along with whoever he thought was the coolest guy in the room.  Well, we’ve got a stock for this sycophant who still hasn’t gotten the recession memo - it’s been twelve months, dude! - Abercrombie and Fitch.

The company is known for its preppy (lame) clothing and aggressive (naked) marketing campaigns…and it’s recession proof!  At least according to its CEO.  ”We hear your concerns,” Michael Jeffries said last month, but “promotions are a short-term solution with dreadful long-term effects.”  So Abercrombie won’t be offering any special deals this holiday season…and while competitors like American Eagle (NYSE:AEO) are fighting the slowdown by offering deals like “Buy one shirt, get the second 50% off!” Abercrombie’s going to keep charging $60 for a polo shirt.  So just show Mom what you want…and she’ll walk down the mall and get you two shirts, instead of one, for 50% less at American Eagle ($30 for two polos after the mark down).  I wonder who’s going to get more business this Christmas?

To be fair, AEO’s approach puts a hurt on its gross margins, which slid over 6 points in the thrid quarter to 41% of sales, while Abercrombie’s stayed relatively flat at 66% of sales.