Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee, issued the following statement in response to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ October 2008 employment situation. This report showed that the unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent and nonfarm payrolls fell by 240,000 jobs. The economy has shed 1.2 million total jobs in 2008. Over half of these jobs were lost in the last three months, indicating a rapidly accelerating pace of job loss.

“Job losses are accelerating rapidly and take-home pay has fallen sharply.” said Congressman Maloney. “The human toll of the nation’s financial situation is mounting as the unemployment rate is the highest in 14 years and over 10 million workers are now unemployed. Congress stands ready to work with the current President and President-elect Obama to enact a broad and wide-ranging economic stimulus plan that gets the economy back on track and puts people back to work.”

Highlights from the BLS October2008 employment situation:

The unemployment rate rose sharply to 6.5 percent.  The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage points and is now at a 14-year high. In October, 10.1 million people were unemployed, and 56.6 percent of those (5.7 million) lost their jobs involuntarily.  There are 2.8 million more unemployed workers than there were a year ago.

The pace of job loss is accelerating.  With 240,000 jobs lost, October marked the tenth straight month of job losses. In addition, the job loss figure for September was revised upward to 284,000, showing an additional 125,000 jobs lost in that month over initial estimates.  Over 2008, the private sector has shed 1.3 million jobs, while the government has hired 163,000 new workers this year.

The share of the population with a job has fallen over the past year. The share of the population with a job fell to 61.8 percent in October, the lowest since 1993. Among adult men, the unemployment rate rose to 6.3 percent, the highest in 15 years, and among adult women, matching the highest unemployment rate seen during the early 2000s recession.

Workers are increasingly unable to find full-time jobs.   There are 2.3 million more people working part-time than a year ago because they cannot find a full-time job.  There are 484,000 workers who are out of the labor force because they are discouraged – 164,000 more workers than a year ago.

Real wages are not keeping pace with higher prices. Workers have lost all the wage gains they made during the 2000s economic recovery because real wages are now lower than they were at the beginning of the decade. Average wages over the past three months have grown by only 3.8 percent, far less than the 4.9 percent growth in consumer prices.

Retailers are shedding jobs ahead of the holiday season. Over 2008, employment in retail trade has fallen by 296,000, and nearly a third of the jobs were lost in the past two months (44.8 jobs lost in September and 38.1 lost in October). Retailers are reporting sharp drops in sales and holiday hiring is likely to be weak.