US jobless rate hits 14-year high

by wsws (reposted)

Sun, Nov 9, 2008 7:15PM

Data released yesterday by the US Labor Department showed unemployment increased last month from 6.1 to 6.5 percent, the highest rate recorded since 1994. The number of officially unemployed increased by 603,000 to a total of 10.1 million, the largest number since 1983.

A total of 240,000 jobs were lost last month on a net basis, significantly more than had been anticipated, again pointing to a prolonged and severe downturn. “We’re heading for a deep recession,” Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, told Bloomberg News. “Banish the word mild from your vocabulary. It’s big, it’s bad, and it’s broad-based.”

The Labor Department revised its jobless figures for September, from the initially reported 159,000 net job losses to 284,000. Total employment has declined by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008, with more than half of this fall recorded in the last three months. Economists estimate that the economy must generate an additional 100,000 jobs each month just to keep up with population growth.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/jobs-n08.shtml

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