U.S. Companies Cut 240,000 Jobs in October; Unemployment Spikes to 6.5 Percent, Highest Since 1994

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

U.S. Companies Cut 240,000 Jobs in October; Unemployment Spikes to 6.5 Percent, Highest Since March 1994

Unemployed Nation: America's Shrinking Payroll
More Than 1 Million People Have Lost Their Jobs in the United States in 2008


Carol Steinbrecher is a 55-year-old mother of three who, like many Americans, has spent most of her life working hard to provide the best for her family.

But today she is part of another group of Americans, one that is growing larger every day: the unemployed.

In the first ten months of this year, the nation's employers have cut nearly 1.2 million jobs and the unemployment rate is now at 6.5 percent, the highest it has been since March 1994. The Department of Labor released new data this morning showing that October was the tenth straight month of job losses, with another 240,000 lost just last month.

Fidelity and Mattel were some of the latest to announce layoffs, coming out yesterday with 1,300 and 1,000 job cuts, respectively. And this morning Ford said it would cut its North American salaried workforce by an additional 10 percent.

Steinbrecher spent 17 years working for Xerox, most recently as a customer service manager. Then, one day in June, she was part of an 800-person layoff.

Immediately she thought: "How was I going to keep my kid in college? How could I make tuition payments?"

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=6199501&page=1

[lonestarnot]

1. Welcome to slave-dom!

[fasttense]

2. The BLS U6 says unemployment is 11.8%.

I suspect it is closer to 20%.

[blue_onyx]

5. I agree, it's worse than 6.5%

especially here in Michigan. It seems we keep losing jobs but the offical unemployment numbers only go up a little.

[rasputin1952]

3. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better...

it is also important to remember that these are only the #'s that are actually on, or have applied for Unemployment Insurance. Those who have used up their benefits, or did not apply are not included in the unemployment statistics. I would figure the # is far higher, 15-18%.

[WarhammerTwo]

4. I might be part of that number soon.

I posted this in another thread, but it fits here too.

I'm a scientist doing antibacterial drug discovery. They're shipping my job (the whole Infectious Disease Department, really)out of the country. They also hired an Indian firm to do a lot of pre-clinical research... a firm that just got banned from importing drugs into the country due to safety violation and are possibly charged with falsifying data to the FDA. Nice, right? Gotta save a buck to make the Wall Street investors happy. Cuz God knows the investors gotta come first. Not the patients. Not the employees. Nope. The investors. Gotta make good on our promise for a fair and reasonable return on their investment as per our mission statement. Thing is, Wall Street doesn't want a FAIR and REASONABLE return. They want outlandish returns and they wanted them yesterday. They want unsustainable double digit growth quarter after quarter with a "what have you done for me lately" mentality. But they come first. Glad to see Corporate America has it's priorities straight. Man, I hate Wall Street and their unfettered free trade. If ya ask me, THAT is the greatest threat to this country. Not illegal immigrants. not the drug trade. Not terrorists. Wall Street and Disaster Capitalism. I have a great article about Disaster Capitalism posted on my MySpace blog if you're interested: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListA...

I will give credit where credit is due. My company just didn't come in and pull the rug out from underneath us and lay us all off out of the blue. They told us by December 2009, my department will be gone. As projects come to an end, they'll be letting people go. Layoffs will be in waves next year. So they have been kind enough to give us AMPLE warning and we are all able to look for work and interview on their dime. So yeah, we're getting effed, but at least they greased up first so it's not as painful as it could be. Hopefully, in that time, I'll either find another position inside the company or another job outside and avoid becoming a statistic.

Still. It sucks having this looming in the distance.

[aggiesal]

6. Wonder how big a landslide it would have been ...

if these numbers had been released on Monday 11/3?

[TygrBright]

7. OMG! It's all Obama's fault! They told us, and we didn't listen! Oh NOoooeees!! n/t