You're Fired.

This morning, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that "nonfarm" payroll employment shed approximately 240,000 jobs in October, as the unemployment rate rose from 6.1% to 6.5%. The largest losses by economic sector (from high to low) were sustained by manufacturing, construction, professional services, retail, and financial services. Unfortunately, this news hits far too close to home since I was laid off from my job at Deloitte in October. Here are the most distressing indicators for a painful and prolonged economic recession in the U.S. labor market:

• Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, bringing job losses thus far in 2008 to 1.2 million.

• In October, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 249,000 to 2.3 million. The long-term unemployed accounted for 22.3 percent of total unemployment. The newly unemployed—those who were jobless fewer than 5 weeks—increased by 212,000 to 3.1 million in October.

• In October, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose by 645,000 to 6.7 million. The number of such workers increased by 2.3 million over the past 12 months.
  

So, what are the pro-growth sectors you ask? According to the report, health care and mining:

• Health care employment continued to expand in October, with an increase of 26,000. Over the past 12 months, health care employment has grown by 348,000. The mining industry added 7,000 jobs in October. Since a low in April 2003, mining employment has grown by 246,000.