Straight from the horse’s mouth:
Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.1 to 6.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. October’s drop in payroll employment followed declines of 127,000 in August and 284,000 in September, as revised. Employment has fallen by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008; over half of the decrease has occurred in the past 3 months. In October, job losses continued in manufacturing, construc- tion, and several service-providing industries. Health care and mining continued to add jobs.
The Associated Press reports that last month’s losses bring us to a total of more than 1.2 million jobs lost over the course of 2008. The unemployment rate is now 6.5 percent, its highest level since 1994.