The NOV 08 jobless rate would have bolted to 8% for the month if not for the exodus of 422,000 people from the work force for any number of reasons — going back to school, retiring or simply abandoning job searches out of frustration. When people stop looking, they're no longer counted in the unemployment rate.
This means with 533K lost , but 422K removed because they have given up looking for a job are removed:
True number of UNEMPLOYED for NOV: 955,000!
HOLY SHAM-WOW Batman!
The rate was at 4.7 percent just one year ago, 6.5 percent in October.
Employment shrank in virtually every part of the economy — factories, construction companies, financial firms, accounting and bookkeeping, architectural and engineering firms, hotels and motels, food services, retailers, temporary help, transportation, publishing, janitorial and building maintenance, and even waste management. The few fields spared included education, health care and government.
The United States — already in recession for a year plus, may not be out of it until the spring of 2010 — making for the longest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, economists are now saying. Recessions in the mid-1970s and early 1980s last 16 months.
Unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent in 1982, terrible but still a far cry from the Depression, when roughly one in four Americans were out of work.
That said, more pain is certainly in store. Fresh evidence of the Tsunami to Hit:
• A record one in 10 American homeowners with a mortgage was either at least a month behind on payments or in foreclosure at the end of September, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported.
• General Motors, already pleading with Congress for billions of dollars to survive the month, said it would lay off an additional 2,000 workers as it cuts shifts at three car factories starting in February due to slowing demand for GM cars.
President George W. Bush aka DUBYA, who used the word "recession" for the first time on Friday to describe the economy's state, pledged to explore more efforts to ease housing, credit and financial stresses.
"There is still more work to do," Bush said. "My administration is committed to ensuring that our economy succeeds."
Go fade into a corner forever DUBYA and take CONGRESS with you!
Getting the feeling that GE is trying use CNBC as a way to create a rally in the markets to save its own hide (GE capital).
