Got Jobs?

I guess now that we're "officially" in a recession, it's OK to let other cats out of the bag.

U.S. employers shed more than half a million jobs in November, accelerating a steady decline in the labor market with the worst monthly showing in 34 years.


The report from the Labor Department is likely to raise fresh concerns about the depth and length of an ongoing recession, and could figure into hearings on Capitol Hill today about a proposed bailout of the Big Three Detroit automakers.


The unemployment rate rose from 6.5 percent to 6.7 percent, the highest rate since the recession of the early 1990s. The figure was tempered by the fact that 422,000 workers left the labor market, likely discouraged by their inability to find a job. The unemployment rate only includes people actively looking for work.


"Context is everything," Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said as hearings on the auto bailout began. A failure of the automakers amid already steep job losses "would be an unmitigated disaster."


The latest jobs report "is bad news. No matter how you look at it is really, really bad news," former Treasury Secretary John Snow said this morning on the CNBC cable television network.


Some 2.7 million jobs now have been eliminated since the economy moved into recession a year ago -- nearly 1.3 million of them in the last three months, following Labor Department revisions that showed even steeper employment losses in September and October than initially reported.


Currently more than 10.3 million people are out of work, the Labor Department said.

So...if we're all losing our jobs, how do we pay off our mortgages and loans? How do we by HD TVs and fancy cars? How do we send our kids (or ourselves) to school?

Another question: why are we bailing out the suppliers, and not the demanders? I can't shake this feeling that if the American People were given between $5,000 and $20,000 we'd be able to buy our way out of this. No matter how many industries Congress saves, it won't matter if the customers can't afford the service or product.