economic crisis

money.cnn.com — October was another awful month for jobs. Two key employment reports showed the largest number of planned job cuts in nearly five years, with private sector jobs falling by the largest amount in nearly seven years. Job cut announcements by U.S. employers soared to 112,884 in October, up 19% from September's 95,094 cuts, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That was the highest number of pink slips handed out since January 2004. Layoffs last month were up 79% from October 2007, when 63,114 job cuts were announced. Separately, payroll manager ADP said Wednesday that the private sector lost a seasonally adjusted 157,000 jobs last month - more than six times September's decrease and the largest drop since December 2001.

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usatoday.com — The sagging economy sparked 106,266 consumer bankruptcy filings in October, the first time monthly filings topped 100,000 since the bankruptcy law changed in 2005, the American Bankruptcy Institute said. During the first year after the new law took effect, personal bankruptcy filings plummeted dramatically, and since then, have risen gradually. In October, though, filings jumped 40% over the same month in 2007. For the year, bankruptcy filings are expected to exceed 1 million. "This underscores that the underlying economic problems of consumers who are facing high debts, flat incomes and now declining home values are a very powerful force that pushes people over the edge," says Samuel Gerdano, ABI executive director.

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news.bbc.co.uk — U.S. manufacturing activity fell in October to its lowest level for 26 years, according to a new report from the Institute for Supply Management. The report cited "significant demand destruction", for the third consecutive month in which the sector contracted. The figures were far worse than the market had expected and pushed the Dow Jones index briefly into negative territory in early morning trading. However, U.S. construction spending in September fell far less than expected. The institute's index of national factory activity fell to 38.9 from 43.5 in September. Any score of less than 50 represents a contraction in manufacturing.

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usatoday.com — Fearful consumers avoided auto dealerships in October, sending U.S. sales to their lowest levels in more than 25 years. Industry sales plummeted 31.9% from a year ago, according to industry tracking firm Autodata. Automakers sold just 838,156 new vehicles in October, the second consecutive month below 1 million. Until then, monthly sales had been more than 1 million since February 1993. General Motors (GM) says that, adjusted for population growth, U.S. sales were as low last month as they were just after World War II. Without government intervention, GM doesn't see a rebound. "Bottom line, there really needs to be action (to loosen credit) to allow our country to pull out of this very, very bleak period," said Mike DiGiovanni, GM's chief forecaster.

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