12.05.2008

The disaster in the labor market continues

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that

Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply (-533,000) in November, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.5 to 6.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. November's drop in payroll employment followed declines of 403,000 in September and 320,000 in October, as revised. Job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors in November.

Paul Krugman anticipated this bit of bad news. As a response he asked whether it "will it, in fact, even be possible to pull the economy out of its nosedive before unemployment goes into double digits? I'm starting to wonder." Unfortunately, he need to wonder about it too long since the real jobless rate already exceeds 10% (see this and this).

Chart of U.S. Unemployment

No comments: