Complain about a product or service

533,000 Jobs Lost in November

Unemployment rate shoots to 6.7 percent

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

December 5, 2008

Personal Finance • Consumer Spending, Saving, Both Rise • Economic Trends Looking Better For Consumers • Consumers Feeling Better About Financial Security • Banks See Hard Times Even After Bailout • Consumers Remain Thrifty In April • Feds Shut Down Florida Bank • Consumers Reminded to Investigate Before Investing • All 19 Banks Pass Stress Tests • TARP Ripe For Scams, Warns Inspector General • Consumers to Spend Same or More on Entertainment in 2009 • No Sign of Inflation in March • Consumers Cut Spending in March • Key Corporate Earnings Due This Week • Employers Trying To Avoid Further Job Cuts • Two Million Jobs Lost So Far in 2009 • People Feeling Economic Stress At All Turns • Consumer Prices Rise More Than Forecast • Survey Shows Consumers Preparing For The Worst • U.S. Employers Foresee Subdued Hiring Activity • Banks Lost $26 Billion in Fourth Quarter • Congress Takes Up Boomer Retirement Woes • Economists See Recession Continuing Through First Half of 2009 • Derailed Boomers Changing Retirement Plans • Recession Likely to Have Health Consequences • More Than 500,000 Jobs Lost in December • Staying Healthy in a Sick Economy • How Retirees Can Survive the Bear Market • Are Men Hardwired to Overspend? • Feds Report More Signs of Recession • Cheap Oil May Be Economic Stimulus • An Upside to the Down Market: A Lower Tax Bill • Americans Tap Savings to Cope with Economy • Economists' Panel Sees Prolonged Recession --- • More Personal Finance News

A deepening recession has battered the job market, as the U.S. Labor Department reports unemployment rose to 6.7 percent last month. Employers cut payrolls by 533,000 jobs during the month.

Economists were braced for bad news, but not this bad.

"This was one of those reports that when you use the term shocking, you are not overstating things," said Joel Naroff, chief economist of the private forecasting firm Naroff Economic Advisors, in Holland, Pa. "This was a truly disturbing report."

The losses were across just about the entire economy as gains were posted only in health care and education. In addition, the September and October losses were revised upward, and were actually nearly 200,000 higher than initially reported.

"In November, firms gave up trying to hold on to their workers and instead started concentrating on surviving the recession," Naroff said. "As a result, they cut their workforce by the largest number of workers since December 1974."

So far this year, over 1.9 million jobs have been lost. Firms are also cutting back hours worked sharply, in effect reducing the pay of hourly employees. The 6.7 unemployment rate is now the highest since October 1993.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Back to the top |