U.S. Economy: Jobless Rate Climbs to 14-Year High (Update1)

By Bob Willis and Rich Miller

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. unemployment rate rose to the highest level since 1994 as companies slashed payrolls, setting the stage for the steepest economic decline in decades and a tough start for Barack Obama's presidency.

The jobless rate rose to 6.5 percent in October from 6.1 percent the previous month, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. Employers fired 240,000 workers after a loss of 284,000 in September. Revisions to the previous month added 25,000 more to the jobless lines than previously reported.

The surge in unemployment, coupled with other signs the economy nosedived last month, puts pressure on Obama to quickly name his economic team and spell out his planned remedies. It may also spur congressional Democrats to enact in coming weeks a second fiscal stimulus package.

``The economy has entered the very deep portion of the recession and should remain there over the coming six to nine months,'' said John Herrmann, president of Herrmann Forecasting LLC in Summit, New Jersey. ``These numbers imply a stimulus package of closer to $500 billion, ranging over the remainder of this year and through 2009.''

25-Year High

The total number of unemployed Americans jumped to 10.08 million last month, the highest level in a quarter-century, today's report showed.

Economists had anticipated a 200,000 drop in payrolls after a previously estimated 159,000 decline in September, according to the median of 78 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The median forecast for the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent.

``We're heading for a deep recession,'' said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. ``Banish the word mild from your vocabulary. It's big, it's bad and it's broad-based.''

Stocks today recouped some of their losses from the past two days, when benchmark indexes plunged the most since 1987. The Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index was up 1.2 percent at 915.85 at 11:37 a.m. in New York. Ten-year Treasury note yields rose to 3.76 percent from 3.69 percent late yesterday.

``The evidence is more than compelling'' that a recession is under way, Robert Hall, who heads the National Bureau of Economic Research's panel that dates economic cycles, said in an interview following the jobs report. ``It's conclusive, in my personal opinion.'' Hall is an economics professor at Stanford University.