34 Year High in Job Losses for November
The American economy lost 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years. The unemployment rate shot up to 6.7 percent, the highest in 15 years. The last time that job losses in a single month were this bad or worse was in December, 1974.
The chart below provides a picture of how the recession has deepened throughout the year.
source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
If anyone had doubts about the severity of the recession that began at this time last year, there are none left. The current slowdown points to a more bad news for the United States and the rest of the world as the continuing economic crisis searches for a bottom that appears to be far lower yet.
The next graph displays the job losses since June, 2007:
Almost no sector in the economy was spared. Cutbacks hit factories, often the highest paying jobs, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and others. Government and health services were two of the few who did not post job losses.
The forecast for losses in November had been 320,000, so economists were shown to have missed the mark by more than 66%, a sure sign that the severity of the recession far exceeded general expectations.
Since the start of the recession last December, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, and the number of unemployed people has increased by 2.7 million — to 10.3 million now out of work.
Some analysts predict 3 million more jobs will be lost between now and the spring of 2010 — and that the once-humming U.S. economy could stagger backward at a shocking 6 percent rate for the current three-month quarter.
Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse than originally estimated. Employers cut 403,000 jobs in September, versus 284,000 previously estimated. Another 320,000 were chopped in October, compared with an initial estimate of 240,000.
To make matter even worse, as if we needed more bad news, this report from Economix states it clearly:
“If you take a broader measure — one that tries to account for them [discouraged workers] — you see a darker picture of the labor market. The share of all men ages 16 and over who are working is now at its lowest level since the government began keeping statistics in the 1940s. The share of women with jobs has fallen almost two percentage points from the peak it reached in 2000; at no other point in the past 50 years has the share of employed women has fallen so much from its peak.”
The recession is going to be the Grinch who stole Christmas, deepening as the holiday season nears. With high unemployment, gift giving is likely to be reduced by many consumers.
My fear of unemployment as high as 10% was strengthened by today’s news. A bottom for this recession is not in sight.
