Bleeding Jobs: U.S. Loses 533,000 Jobs in November

by Tula Connell, Dec 5, 2008

The United States is bleeding jobs: Today’s unemployment figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show a mind-numbing 533,000 jobs lost in November, the largest monthly jobs loss in 34 years. The already bad 6.5 percent unemployment rate worsened to 6.7 percent, and some 1.9 million workers have lost their jobs this year.

The number of workers who have lost their jobs in November is far larger than the 300,000 predicted by many economists, and doesn’t reflect drastic layoff plans announced by major corporations in recent days.

Yesterday, AT&T Inc., DuPont Co., Viacom Inc., Credit Suisse Group and Avis Budget Group announced job cuts that total 22,850, and earlier this week, financial firms such as The Carlyle Group said they’d cut a total of 3,000 jobs.

As bad as the November job loss numbers are, the unemployment situation is far worse than the latest figures show. First, many of the jobs lost aren’t coming back. According to the BLS:

Among the unemployed, the number of persons who lost their jobs and did not expect to be recalled to work increased by 298,000 to 4.7 million in November.

Next, the BLS data show the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) hovered at 2.2 million in November—up by 822,000 over the past 12 months.

In addition, the official unemployment rate of 6.7 percent does not include underemployed workers and those who are discouraged, and if they were included, analysts estimate the U.S. unemployment rate would be 12.5 percent. The numbers of “involuntary part-time workers”—underemployed workers—continued to increase in November, reaching 7.3 million.

Congress last month passed a second extension of unemployment insurance (UI), but far more is needed to stem the consequences of such massive job loss. Already, the number of Americans receiving food stamps set a record in September, with more than 31.5 million needing food aid, up 17 percent from a year ago.

We at the AFL-CIO are calling on Congress to pass an economic recovery program to address the immediate needs of working families, one that must include extended and expanded UI benefits, fiscal aid for states, significant funds for job-creating infrastructure projects and an expanded food stamp program.

And as AFL-CIO President John Sweeney stated today:

Immediate solutions are only one piece of the puzzle. President-elect Obama has pledged to enact broad-based economic reform to save the middle class. He will need to act swiftly to put an end to the chorus of degregulation that let Wall Street spiral out of control. Our nation’s banking and financial sectors urgently require increased government oversight to safeguard working people’s hard earned money.

Further, as Sweeney notes, no economic reform will be complete without restoring workers’ freedom to form and join unions to bargain for better wages and benefits.

Without that opportunity, America’s workers will continue to experience stagnant wages, which lead to unsustainable debt and a downward economic spiral. The Employee Free Choice Act isn’t just about fairness in the workplace—it’s about rebuilding purchasing power and the middle class. We won’t see a robust and sustainable economic recovery without this crucial element.

The latest disastrous jobs report should indicate to a waffling Congress the urgent need for a bridge loan to the U.S. auto industry—without it, a minimum of 3 million jobs will be lost in the next year. With one in 10 U.S. jobs dependent in some way on America’s auto industry, taking fast action to shore up this major industry should be a no-brainer.

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