Employment Situation

Well the October Employment Situation report is out, and it's a mixed bag. On the one hand, nonfarm payrolls—one of the key indicators of employment— fell by a smaller amount than expected. On the other hand the unemployment rate rose by a larger than expected .4%. As it

stands now we have 10.2% unemployment, the highest number since 1983.

From the report:

"Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other marginally attached workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers is 11.6%" an increase of .5% from September.

"Total unemployed, plus al marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force is 17.5%" an increase of .5% from September.

One of the most troubling numbers is that manufacturing lost 61,000 jobs in October. Take a look at this graph of manufacturing employment.

Manufacturing employment has clearly dropped dramatically. Over the past four months job losses averaged about 51,000 a month (from October 2008 to June 2009 it averaged 161,000 a month).

I spoke previously about manufacturing leading the way out of the recession. If job losses in the sector begin to accelerate again, we could be in for another dip down the road.