Squeezed by tight credit and plunging spending power, the American economy is losing jobs at the fastest pace since 2001, and the losses could accelerate to levels not seen since the deep recession of the early 1980s.<\/p>\n
Employers shed 240,000 more jobs in October, the government reported Friday morning, the 10th consecutive monthly decline and a clear signal that the economic slowdown is troubling households and businesses.<\/p>\n
Since August, the economy has lost 651,000 jobs \u201d\u201d more than three times as many as were lost from May to July. So far, 1.2 million jobs have been lost this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, these are very bad numbers,\u201d\u009d said Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at IHS Global Insight. \u201cBusinesses had been paring back for most of the year, but I suspect that it had been more caution on hiring rather than firing,\u201d\u009d Mr. Gault said. \u201cIn September, they decided, \u201d\u02dcO.K., look, this isn\u2019t just a mini-recession, this is a full-blown recession. We better take some action.\u2019 And they did.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n