The unemployment rate in the U.S. soared to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October and employers cut more jobs than forecast, underscoring why Federal Reserve policy makers say interest rates will remain low until the labor market recovers.
Payrolls fell by 190,000 workers last month, compared with a 175,000 drop anticipated by the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The jobless rate gained from 9.8 percent in September and exceeded 10 percent for the first time since 1983.
Payrolls were forecast to drop 175,000 after an initially reported 263,000 decline for September, according to the median estimate of 84 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from decreases of 250,000 to 105,000.
The jobless rate was projected to rise to 9.9 percent. Forecasts ranged from 9.8 percent to 10.1 percent.
Monthly losses accelerated after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008 and peaked at 741,000 in January.
Today’s report showed factory payrolls dropped 61,000 after decreasing 45,000 in the prior month. The median forecast by economists called for a drop of 42,000. The decline included a gain of 4,600 jobs in auto manufacturing and parts industries.
Sales of cars and light trucks rebounded last month after plunging in the wake of the government’s so-called cash-for- clunkers incentive plan. Vehicles sold at a 10.5 million annual pace in October, up from a 9.2 million rate in September.
Payrolls at builders declined 62,000 after a loss of 68,000 in September. Financial firms cut payrolls by 8,000, after 9,000 reductions the prior month.
(Source: Bloomberg News)
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5 Responses
For those who voted for the Democrats’ presidential candidate, how’s that ‘hopey changey’ thing working out for ya? Your messianic man-child president with the five minute career resume can’t keep blaming it on the former administration forever.
Oh boy how is that hope and change going for you? And I guess the government is going to change all of this by spending another $500 billion on another stimulus package or TARP or whatever….
This is intentional, not a mistake, not incompetence.
In order to secure the consent of free Americans to be enslaved under full totalitarian control, as in all Socialist countries, they must be made miserable enough to accept anything that will put bread back on the table.
Don’t worry, they’ll blame it on George Bush.
To deepthinker: My conservative tendencies run slightly to the right of Attila the Hun, but your comment is a bit over the top. My gripe is with the morons who bought this schmendrik’s utopian promises, hook, line, and sinker. We don’t have a leadership problem in America per se. We have an electorate problem. Liberals vote with a cerebral vacuum, as in Lost in Space.