A total of 240,000 jobs were lost last month on a net basis, significantly more than had been anticipated, again pointing to a prolonged and severe downturn. “We’re heading for a deep recession,” Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, told Bloomberg News. “Banish the word mild from your vocabulary. It’s big, it’s bad, and it’s broad-based.”

The Labor Department revised its jobless figures for September, from the initially reported 159,000 net job losses to 284,000. Total employment has declined by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008, with more than half of this fall recorded in the last three months. Economists estimate that the economy must generate an additional 100,000 jobs each month just to keep up with population growth.

Jobs were shed across a number of sectors:

• Manufacturing employment declined by 90,000 in October, including employment in fabricated metal parts (11,000 jobs lost), furniture and related products (10,000) and motor vehicles and parts (9,000).

• Construction employment fell by 49,000. The Labor Department noted that since peak activity in September 2006, construction employment has fallen by 663,000.

• The employment services industry lost 51,000 jobs.

• Retail trade employment declined by 38,000, with auto dealerships (20,000 jobs lost) and department stores (18,000) the worst affected.

• Financial sector employment fell by 24,000 and is down by 200,000 jobs since its peak in December 2006.

Commenting on the Labor Department data, the Wall Street Journal’s Sudeep Reddy and Justin Lahart noted, “One of the more worrisome aspects of today’s report: signs that the labor market was declining substantially even before the worst of the credit crisis hit… If conditions were that bad before October, they’re likely to be far worse in the months to come as companies adjust to the new credit environment and consumers retrench with added pressure on housing and credit markets.”

The hero of the day will have his work cut for him in the months and years to come. (My comment)

Yikes!

yea mike,yikes is right,I work for a GM dealership and everday I am holding my breath waiting for the bad news,2 months ago the Ford dealer down the road closed it's doors and it won't be coming back,GM is not the only clown in this circus either,Honda and Toyota are also down 25% or so,I will be dang lucky if I have my job next year,where I live jobs aren't that plentiful to begin with,I drive 45 miles 1 way to this one,if I were to work localy the only thing available is farming jobs,so some collage re training may be in store for me,or emt,firefighter or something like that,I can always make money somehow,I worry about the 10's of thousands who aren't so creative ,or willing to do what I would to survive.

See, this is the situation most unemployed Americans face. It's not that we don't want to work — the jobs simply are not there. Welfare and other safety net programs were designed for people in times of economic distress. Getting recipients off of it is fine, but first they have to be employed in jobs that pay them enough to support them and their families. This is why Clinton's and the GOP's gutting of welfare in the 90s was such a disaster. No one bothered to make sure people had jobs they could live on before throwing them off the welfare rolls.

You might be interested to read Paul Krugman's column from yesterday. He mentions the W.P.A. and how it got people back to work building and rebuilding infrastructure. To quote Krugman, "[t]o this day we drive on W.P.A.-built roads and send our children to W.P.A.-built schools." What went a little wrong during FDR's second term is that caution took hold and caused him to try to roll back on some of the reforms he got Congress to pass, thinking he was moving too fast. As a result, the economy suffered something of a relapse in the short term. At this point, with so much of our nation's infrastructure decaying (collapsing bridges and crumbling levies kill), we need a massive boost that employs public works programs designed to get people into jobs they can live on. This will require both public and private initiatives, more former than latter, but the investment is worth it if it means people are working again.

yup,alot of the WPA still exist near where I live,in fact right behind my house is 1,000's of acres of federal forest that were planted as part of this program,not to mention the TVA,Hoover Dam,etc,I will read that article by Krugman tomorrow,no time tonight,in fact alot of my family that originally cut down most of Michigans for lumbar probably had their grandchildren replanting them,vicous circle I guess.

But the WPA and CCC were considered socialist programs by some Repubs of the day.

thats true they were,but I feel that old school democrats had a better feel for the working mans dilemma than they do today,as I have said "if they still made democrats like FDR and Truman I would probably still be in the party",maybe the old dems are more progressive ,not sure where the republicans stand from then til now,but that doesn't matter to me,I am not one of them anyway,just unfortunate enough to share some of their views.

Did I see that 1/2 million people filed first time unemployment claims Last Week,
Does that mean 500,000 people lost their job in the last 2 Weeks?
Or was I looking at something Different,

I do not know if this country will survive the rest Of the Bush/Cheney White House.

It may not survive the Obama administration; Larry Summers, a chief architect of the economic crisis, is being floated for secretary of Treasury, according to Allison Kilkenny.