Jobs Lost in 2008: 1.2 MILLION ...and counting

I have a novel idea - let's cut out the middle man and hand the $700 billion "bail out dollars" directly to ourselves since these bastards clearly don't intend to "create" any jobs with it...

Jobs lost in 2008: 1.2 million. Payrolls shrink by 240,000 in October, 10th straight month of cuts. Unemployment soars to 6.5%

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government reported more grim news about the economy Friday, saying employers cut 240,000 jobs in October - bringing the year's total job losses to nearly 1.2 million.

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"There is so much bad in this report that it is hard to find any silver lining," said Morgan Keegan analyst Kevin Giddis.

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"It's pretty clear that we're in a recession," said Robert Brusca, economist at FAO Economics. "There is reason for us to believe we'll see a drumbeat of heavy job losses for a while, and there's room for them to get even worse."

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"We may be in a severe recession, in which case these job numbers are not even big yet," he said, suggesting monthly job loss totals could grow in excess of 300,000 an unemployment could rise to around 7%.

Losses across the board

Job losses were spread across a wide variety of industries. Manufacturing lost 90,000 jobs, the leisure and hospitality industries cut 16,000 jobs, and construction employment shrank further by 49,000 jobs.

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In an ominous sign for the upcoming holiday shopping season, retailers trimmed payrolls by 38,000 workers last month.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!!!

"Job loss has a big impact on the economy," Brusca said. "When people have no income, they spend less, businesses make less money, and they cut more jobs."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out...

The so-called under-employment rate, which counts those part-time workers, as well as those without jobs who have become discouraged and stopped looking for work, rose to 11.8% from from 11%, matching the all-time high for that measure since calculations for it began in January 1994.

Temporary employment, including workers employed by temp agencies, fell by 50,800 jobs last month. That could mean even more full-time payroll reductions to come, as employers often cut temporary workers before they begin cutting permanent staff.

But, hey - look at the bright side - wages rose by an average of FOUR WHOLE FUCKING CENTS PER HOUR!!!

In a somewhat encouraging sign, the average hourly work week did not fall last month, holding at 33.6 hours, in line with expectations. With a modest 4-cent gain in the average hourly salary, the average weekly paycheck rose by $1.35 to $611.86.

Hallelujah, praise the Lord - pass out the pitch forks and torches!

But, wait - they say they have a "solution"...

...but it will require "sacrifice" (ours alone, of course - they get to live high on the hog - at our expense, as usual...)

Trying to get back on track

Solutions are not simple. Support for a second stimulus package has grown in Congress, and President-elect Barack Obama has indicated that he would support such a measure. The prior stimulus package in the spring helped the economy grow in the second quarter, but it did little to stem the tide of job loss in the country. Many economists have also called on the Federal Reserve to cut rates to historic lows to encourage growth.

!!!HEAVY-DUTY BS ALARM!!!

"These are all the right solutions, but the real question is are they enough to get the economy on the right path," said Anthony Chan, chief economist for JP Morgan private wealth management. "They're necessary, but we don't yet know if they're sufficient."

I can guarantee that these so-called "solutions" are neither necessary nor are they sufficient to solve "the problem."

In fact, they're designed precisely to fleece the population even further.

Chan said the programs will work, and that the government needs to continue to "slug it out," perhaps putting even more stimulus programs in place to encourage job growth.

The only "stimulus programs" I can think of that would "encourage job growth" do not involve handing those money grubbing goons any more of our hard-earned tax dollars.

All we need is a couple of million armed protestors to surround the corporate headquarters of every multinational corporation in this country.

That ought to be enough to "stimulate" those bastards into creating real job growth.