Flying Pink Unicorns

Blockbuster (un)employment report

As you have probably all heard, the government released a blockbuster "jobs" report today, announcing that 533,000 jobs were lost in November, 1.3 million have been lost in the last 3 months, following revisions which made really bad figures worse. The 3-month total was the third-highest three-month job loss total since WWII.

The real surprise to me is that job losses aren't at an all time record. We recently learned that a recession began in December 2007. Given that we've been in recession for almost a year and the financial crisis which heavily intensified beginning in September, I'm surprised these aren't the worst months of job loss on record. Perhaps those months are soon coming.

" According to a report by outsourcing agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas, planned job cut announcements by U.S. employers soared to 181,671 last month, the second-highest total on record."

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/05/news/economy/jobs_november/index.htm?postversion=2008120510

So what have we here? Nearly historic 3 months of job losses, many more certainly coming. Unemployment rate is at 6.7%, but that will surely climb significantly.

As bad as these numbers are, they could (and perhaps will become) significantly worse. In a coming post I'll write about when I think the recession will end. Sooner than you think, probably around July/August of 2009.