So much for that post-election glow. Miserable jobs figures made for a bitter welcome for president-elect Barack Obama. Payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, with the jobless rate rising to 6.5 per cent from 6.1 per cent in September. Worse is to come. Drastic negative revisions suggest that the labour market is unravelling faster than previously thought. Sectors of strength earlier this year, such as manufacturing, are crumbling. With the average weekly time worked at a historical low, more companies will soon have to cut bodies, not just working hours. Overburdened household balance sheets will keep the disaffected pounding the streets, thereby pushing the unemployment rate above the 7.8 per cent seen in the relatively mild 1990s downturn. America's leader-in-waiting will soon come to dread the first Friday of every month.
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