No one has to tell you that things are getting bad out there in our economy, but there is plenty of information to prove it. The Bush Administration and John McCain tried to tell us that the fundamentals of the economy were strong, but thankfully most of us saw beyond their obfuscation of the truth. Now that Wall Street has been erratically swinging (mostly down) for two or three months, we are beginning to see how it affects everyone outside of the Financial District.
From CNBC:
U.S. employers axed payrolls by a shocking 533,000 in November for the weakest performance in 34 years, government data on Friday showed, as the recession inflicted a mounting toll on the U.S. labor market.
The Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent last month in the highest reading since 1993, compared with 6.5 percent in October, after widespread losses across the country's major industry sectors.[...]
That meant 199,000 more jobs were lost in September and October than previously thought and the total reduction in U.S. nonfarm payrolls for last three months was 1.256 million, with almost 2 million shed in the year so far.Service-providing businesses alone shed 370,000 jobs in November, following a loss of 153,000 jobs the month before.
Yeah you read that right, over 1.25 million jobs lost in three months. Republicans in power avoided these brewing problems for years (as did neo-liberal Democrats) and now it is time to begin to repair the damage. Barack Obama can't possibly take the helm soon enough. The time for change can barely wait for January 20th, if only he could have started on November 5th.
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