I'm one of the 6.7 %

[ToxicAdam]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081205/financial_meltdown.html?.v=21

AP
Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years
Friday December 5, 8:39 am ET
By Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer 
Employers ax 533,000 jobs in Nov., most in 34 years; unemployment rate rises to 6.7 percent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Skittish employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.

The new figures, released by the Labor Department Friday, showed the crucial employment market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid clip, and handed Americans some more grim news right before the holidays.

As companies throttled back hiring, the unemployment rate bolted from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent last month, a 15-year high.

Job losses were widespread, hitting factories, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and others industries. The few places where gains were logged included the government, education and health services.

The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, wasn't as steep as the 6.8 percent rate they were expecting. Taken together, though, the employment picture was dismal.

The job reductions were the most since a whopping 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.

Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse. 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.

Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with sagging appetites from customers in the U.S. and in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles.

The carnage -- including the worst financial crisis since the 1930s -- is hitting a wide range of companies.

In recent days, household names like AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. announced layoffs.

Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. will return Friday to Capitol Hill to again ask lawmakers for as much as $34 billion in emergency aid.

My place is supposed to call us back in January. But, that looks pretty optimistic now. My area is pretty desolate for jobs so I have a job lined up in Columbus, but that's about a 50 mile commute (one way). Sucks.



 

[Brehvolution]

Execs gotta get there xmas bonuses somehow.

War on the middle class continues.

[siamesedreamer]

Horrific...

And it'll likely get revised higher.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Wow, beating the predictions by 213,000 jobs.

[Bocsius]

Wow, beating the predictions by 213,000 jobs.

Overachieving!

[Human Snorenado]

Wow, beating the predictions by 213,000 jobs.

America!  Fuck yeah!

[siamesedreamer]

Its the fifth worst month since numbers started being estimated in 1939. This is from the guy I know on another forum who's worked on Wall Street for 30 years:

Well...lets try and put a postive spin on this.

Unemployment is a lagging indicator. Firms are slow to fire and slow to hire.

Job loss is one of the last things to show up in a recession/depression...and one of the last to turn up in recovery.

So this is probably not a sign of how bad things are going to get as much as a sign of how bad they have already gotten.

I do think we will see continued declines ahead. I have long said this would be the worst economic decline in any of our lives.

On the pessimistic side, I have felt for years that the period of american economic dominance ended in the 90s.
I have friends in the financial sector who have been out a year now. For many in that sector, losing their jobs means leaving this sector.

This is not a slow down, its not going to be fixed with a restructuring.

It is a sea change in our economy that has been postponed almost a decade by consumers living off debt.

It will be painful.

[Human Snorenado]

It's going to be more painful if Republicans cry like little bitches at the prospect of crazy high deficits.  Guess who has to spend money to rape the economy back into action when companies are broke and banks are afraid to lend?  That would be the government, assholes.

[ToxicAdam]

The timing (of the stock market crash and bank bailouts) is pretty bad because December/January is slow anyways. It just gave employers even more reason to do layoffs or shutdowns. If things don't pick back up by March or April, then we are seriously fucked and headed for a Depression.

[siamesedreamer]

Crazy high deficits are ok if they're spent on things that will actually help and you're willing to accept the market consequences of that type of deficit (ie US bond rating downgrades, crowd out effect on the corporate bond market, interest rates, etc.).

[Great Rumbler]

2 great 2 depressing is back on track!

[Human Snorenado]

Crazy high deficits are ok if they're spent on things that will actually help and you're willing to accept the market consequences of that type of deficit (ie US bond rating downgrades, crowd out effect on the corporate bond market, interest rates, etc.).

The time for a new electricity grid has come.  That's a huge undertaking right there.  Incorporating solar power from the SW and wind from the mid-west just makes too much damn sense on so many levels.  I for one am also getting horny over the prospect of regional rail lines.

[siamesedreamer]

If things don't pick back up by March or April, then we are seriously fucked and headed for a Depression.

KrUGHman's latest blog says he can't see how unemployment won't eclipse 10%. That's a bit on the high end of estimates I've read. Can't stand his politics, but he's been right on a lot of this stuff though.

He also says things look worse right now than at the beginning of Japan's "lost decade" and that it could go into 2011 before things start to turn around.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=946519750&play=1

[Fragamemnon]

Crazy high deficits are ok if they're spent on things that will actually help and you're willing to accept the market consequences of that type of deficit (ie US bond rating downgrades, crowd out effect on the corporate bond market, interest rates, etc.).

The alternative to not running up colossal stimulus deficit seems to be a classic deflationary spiral, which I think would be way worse than any of those.

[siamesedreamer]

Yeah, that's what Roubini is really worried about.

[Phoenix Dark]

unemployment is always higher than the official number due to underemployment and other factors that aren't included in the numbers

[siamesedreamer]

As a percentage of total jobs, its only the 41st worst month.

[Van Cruncheon]

dec-june is gonna be one long unwind of the consequences of the mortgage/credit meltdown, so expect more doom-and-gloom until the end of fy09. i expect unemployment to get worse in jan-mar, and then an uptick in MAYBE april, with maybe a last wheeze of unemployment at the end of fy09 in june as companies shore up their books under new and hopefully more rigourous/transparent accounting practices. after that, it will be a slow climb from the shithole of our creation unless someone in government gets all libertarian (NO MORE SPEND GOVERNMENT MONIES!!!) and sends us into a deflationary spiral. recession won't officially be done until fy11.

so sayeth prolestradamus

the REAL bad news is we will become even LESS of a producer nation after this AND this is only going to create a bigger class divide. the mild upshot is that companies will have scaled back to operating conditions that reflect economic reality, and not economic fantasy land resting atop a giant bubble of overinflated home values and bogus mortgages

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I think we're all going to find out how bad it really is once the year is over with.  A lot of businesses are just barely hanging on and the holiday season will make or break a fair number of them.  Then the unemployment numbers will surge and then level off as the businesses that are viable, stay viable.  Of course, you got the matter of incorporating all the freshly unemployed back into corporations, which will take several years.

It sounds like a good time to begin funding a lot of renewable energy businesses and begin rebuilding.  It is a mess but at the same time, there's a lot of potential to remake the United States away from the speculators and all products and byproducts of Voodoo Economics and return back to reality.  It won't be perfect but there's a good chance that some good can be had from this.

The time for a new electricity grid has come.  That's a huge undertaking right there.  Incorporating solar power from the SW and wind from the mid-west just makes too much damn sense on so many levels.  I for one am also getting horny over the prospect of regional rail lines.

First you talk shit about the Midwest and now you want to use our resources for power?  I see how it is.

[Arbys Roast Beef Sandwich]

*high five*

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Keep buying stuff though that's the evilbore way.

[Great Rumbler]

Keep buying stuff though that's the evilbore way.

I did my part!

[Mandark]

Well, that really sucks.  Hopefully things pan out for you.

It's easy to forget (except when things like the automaker crisis spotlight it) how much this varies by region.  Some communities are going to get hit very hard.  New York might be in for a rough time, with the finance industry being such a big portion of the tax base.

[Brehvolution]

How do you stimulate the American economy if all the goods you buy are made in China?