from OurFuture.org:
Today's Jobs Report: We're Poorly Prepared For the Storm AheadBy Charles McMillion
October 3rd, 2008 - 11:36am ET
Today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report shows jobs losses worsened sharply in September. Hours worked fell even more sharply than jobs suggest losses in October could be quite severe. Because the number of paid hours worked per week was reduced sharply in September, weekly wages also fell even before adjusting for inflation.
This is an ominous sign for households that already face unprecedented financial pressures with little or no current savings.
The report shows net job losses of 159,000 in September including a gain of 9,000 government jobs; the private sector lost 168,000 jobs in September. This is the ninth consecutive monthly loss of total jobs and the 10th consecutive loss of private sector jobs. The economy has lost 760,000 jobs since December; excluding gains in government jobs. The private sector has lost 983,000 jobs (almost 100,000 a month) since last November.
It’s important to appreciate that even the sharp loss of jobs in September represents only a 0.1 percent loss of overall jobs. But because of reduced hours worked per week, the total number of private sector hours worked in September plunged by 0.5 percent. This converted a small gain in wages per hour (before inflation) to a small decline in weekly wages and a big decline in total wages. When BLS reports on prices and real wages in two weeks (Oct. 16) we will likely find that even modest inflation pushed weekly wages down about 0.3 percent in September to purchasing power levels that are down 0.6 percent year over year.
The equally important implication of the sharp reduction in hours worked is that it is the typical pattern employers use before cutting more jobs. For example, machinery manufacturers cut 4,000 jobs, 0.3 percent, in September but they reduced total hours by 2.5 percent. Financial activities cut 17,000 jobs, 0.2 percent, but cut total hours by 0.5 percent. Construction cut 35,000 jobs, 0.5 percent, but total paid hours worked were cut by 1.3 percent. Even education and health services—a category that added 25,000 jobs, up 0.1 percent—cut the number of total paid hours worked by 0.2 percent. Even before considering job losses due to hurricanes, October is shaping up to be a very bad month for jobs and wages. .......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008104003/todays-jobs-report-poorly-prepared-storm-ahead 
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