November employment report dismal

The November employment report was every bit as dismal as economsits expected, and then some. The economy shed a whopping 533,000 jobs last month, far above expectations for a reading of -335,000 and the single-worst reading going all the way back to December 1974. October's job loss total was revised up to -320,000 from -240,000 and September's loss was revised to -403,000 from -284,000.

The unemployment rate climbed to 6.7% from 6.5% in October. Average hourly earnings did increase 0.4%, up from 0.3%. But that was about the only good news. The private nonfarm diffusion index, which measures industries who are cutting jobs against industries that are adding them dropped to 27.6 from 37.8.