WASHINGTON - Employers slashed 533,000 jobs across the United States in November, the biggest one-month cut in 34 years, pushing the unemployment rate to 6.7 per cent.
The new figures released by the Labour Department on Friday showed the employment market deteriorating at an alarming clip, and handed Americans more grim news right before the year-end holidays.
President George W. Bush publicly acknowledged for the first time Friday that the U.S. economy is in a recession and worried aloud that Detroit's Big Three automakers may not all survive.
With automakers, particularly General Motors, in fear of bankruptcy, they are seeking from Washington a huge cash infusion of up to $34 billion, beyond an existing $25 billion loan program.
Lawmakers are considering the idea, but there is uncertainty about the level of support on Capitol Hill for that plan.
The president supports adjusting the $25 billion loan program, so that the money would be available more quickly and for more urgent needs than its original long-term purpose of helping to retool factories to produce more energy-efficient cars.
"I am concerned about the viability of the automobile companies," he told reporters on the South Lawn at the White House.
"I am concerned about those who work for the automobile companies and their families. And likewise, I am concerned about taxpayer money being provided to these companies that may not survive."
But he also said it's important "to make sure that taxpayers' money be paid back if any is given to the companies."
As companies throttled back hiring, the unemployment rate bolted from 6.5 per cent in October to 6.7 per cent last month, a 15-year high.
Job losses were widespread, hitting factories, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality operators and other industries. The few places where gains were logged included the government, education and health services.
The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the roughly 320,000 economists were forecasting.
The job reductions were the most since 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, during a severe recession.
Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse than previously reported. Employers cut 403,000 jobs in September, versus 284,000 previously estimated. And 320,000 were chopped in October, up from an initial estimate of 240,000.
Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with sagging appetites from customers in the U.S. and in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles.
The carnage -- including the worst financial-sector crisis since the 1930s -- is hitting a wide range of companies.
In recent days, household names like AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase, Pratt & Whitney and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold have announced layoffs.
Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are on Capitol Hill to beg lawmakers for as much as $34 billion in taxpayer support.
Despite the higher unemployment, workers with jobs saw modest wage gains. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.30 in November, a 0.4 per cent increase from the previous month. Over the year, wages have grown 3.7 per cent.
The Federal Reserve is expected ratchet down its key interest rate -- now near a historic low at one per cent -- by as much as a half percentage point on Dec. 16 in a bid to breathe life into the economy.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whose department oversees a $700-billion financial bailout, also is weighing new initiatives, even as his days in office wane.
President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over two years.
The U.S. tipped into recession last December, a panel of experts declared this week, confirming what many Americans already felt.
At 12 months and counting, the recession is longer than the 10-month average for recessions since World War II. The longest recessions in the postwar period ran 16 months, in 1973-75 and 1981-82.
Given the current woes, the jobless rate could rise as high as 8.5 per cent by the end of next year, some analysts predict.
