240,000 Jobs Lost in October; Jobless Rate Hits 6.5%
The latest jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor has the jobless rate at 6.5%. 240,000 jobs were lost in October and the September job cuts were revised to 284,000 jobs. A total of 1.2 million jobs have been lost this year reports the Associated Press.
The jobless rate zoomed to 6.5 percent in October from 6.1 percent in September, matching the rate in March 1994.
Unemployment has now surpassed the high seen after the last recession in 2001. The jobless rate peaked at 6.3 percent in June 2003.
October's decline marked the 10th straight month of payroll reductions, and government revisions showed that job losses in August and September turned out to be much deeper. Employers cut 127,000 positions in August, compared with 73,000 previously reported. A whopping 284,000 jobs were axed in September, compared with the 159,000 jobs first reported.
So far this year, a staggering 1.2 million jobs have disappeared. Over half of the decrease occurred in the past three months alone.
It may be a while before we see a month with an increase in jobs as big companies like Merck, Yahoo, PepsiCo, Mattel, GM and Whirlpool have all already announced plans to layoff workers in 2009. The complete jobs report can be found here.
