More Pain on the Labor Front

When I left home a little after 5 a.m. today, the panel on CNBC was predicting a job loss total for November of 350,000. By the time I got to my office, the actual figure of 533,000 newly unemployed had been announced by the DOL. Stocks, natch, immediately began plunging.

Not since December 1974 has the nation witnessed such a dreadful month on the employment front. The total for the year now stands at 1.91 million jobs lost. It would take a record-breaking December to push us over the 2 million mark. Small comfort in that, though, as jobs will continue to be shed as the nation comes to grips with its new economic reality.

As much as I keep telling myself that recessions cure a lot of the economy's--and society's--ills, that doesn't reduce the anxiety or reality of what's going on very much, either for me personally or for anyone who reads this, and certainly not for anyone who loses his or her job.

What next?

The automaker swan song is already upon us, and there's no way Detroit 2009 will resemble anything in 2008. That transformation, as much needed as it is, will have ripple effects throughout many supporting and consuming sectors of the economy.

I don't want to predict the next crisis, but many commentators are already forecasting a credit card default wave rivaling the ongoing foreclosure crisis.

We are all now living through that ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."

Hang on to your seats for a bumpy ride.