Horrible Job Data

The job data for November is really really ugly, employers slashed 533,000 jobs! The 11th-month of decline. That is 17,766 per day!

It's only the fourth time in the past 58 years that payrolls have fallen by more than 500,000 in a month. Since the recession began 11 months ago, a total of 1.9 million jobs have been lost. Nonfarm payroll has shrunk to mid-2006 level.

From Yahoo! Finance: Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years

Skittish employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.

As companies throttled back hiring, the unemployment rate bolted from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent last month, a 15-year high.

The unemployment rate would have moved even higher if not for the exodus of 422,000 people from the work force. Economists thought many of those people probably abandoned their job searches out of sheer frustration. In November 2007, the jobless rate was at 4.7 percent.

Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate rose by 1.7 percentage points.

The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, wasn't as steep as the 6.8 percent rate they were expecting. Taken together, though, the employment picture was dismal.

The job reductions were the most since a whopping 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.

All told, 10.3 million people were left unemployed as of November, while the number of employed was 144.3 million.

Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse. Employers cut 403,000 jobs in September, versus 284,000 previously estimated. Another 320,000 were chopped in October, compared with an initial estimate of 240,000.

Workers with jobs saw modest wage gains. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.30 in November, a 0.4 percent increase from the previous month. Over the year, wages have grown 3.7 percent, but paychecks haven't stretched that far because of high prices for energy, food and other items.

From MarketWatch: Payrolls plunge by stunning 533,000 in November

Job losses in September and October were revised sharply lower by a total of 199,000. Over the past three months, payrolls have fallen by an average of 419,000 per month, compared with average monthly losses of 82,000 earlier in the year. The percentage drop in employment over the past three months is the largest since 1980.

An alternative gauge of unemployment - which includes discouraged workers and those whose hours have been cut back to part-time - rose to 12.5% from 11.8%. The number of workers forced to work part-time rose by 621,000 to 7.3 million.

Total hours worked in the economy fell 0.9% in November and are down 2.8% in the past year. The average workweek fell to a record-low 33.5 hours in November.

In goods-producing industries, 163,000 jobs were lost, according to a survey of work places. Manufacturing lost 85,000 workers, while construction lost 82,000. In the services, 136,000 jobs were lost in business services, including 101,000 in employment services, such as temporary jobs. Financial services cut 34,000 jobs. Retail shed 91,000 jobs, including 24,000 at auto dealers. Leisure and hospitality industries cut 76,000 jobs. Health and education services industries added 52,000 jobs. Government added 7,000.

In November, 637,000 people dropped out of the workforce. The employment-population ratio fell to 61.4% in November from 61.8%. The labor force participation rate fell to 65.8% from 66.1%.