Unemployment Increases to 10.2%, Payrolls Falling

It hasn't been this bad since 1983, according to the stories in various news outlets this morning, which reported that the unemployment rate in the U.S. soared to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October. The economy lost 190,000 jobs in October, nearly 15,000 more than was predicted by the median forecast of economists recently surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The bad news continued with it being reported that employers will cut more jobs than predicted. Additionally, experts say that this news points to why Federal Reserve policy makers say interest rates will remain low until the labor market recovers.

From the Bloomberg article:

“Labor markets overall still reflect recessionary conditions, and further downward pressure on employment and compensation is likely,” Brian Bethune, chief financial economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said before the report. “It is no surprise that consumer confidence is backpedaling, and the outlook for consumer spending is poor.”

Other bad economic indicators according to Bloomberg are the lack of spending by big brands, a decrease in average working hours and big cuts in the services industries.

Consumers on Twitter reacted:

"Ouch on 10.2% unemployment, bigger issue to me is jobs that are being lost on permanent basis," said noonday_son.

"It's official: Unemployment is at 10 percent. Yowsersl," said jenmargaret.

"Highest unemployment rate since 1983. Let's hope Wham! doesn't decide to come back too. That would not help," said davidguarino.
Source: http://technorati.com/ Published: November 06, 2009