Archived IMT (2008.12.05)

Aside from the shocking 529K decline in US November payrolls (expectations -330K), the upward revisions in layoffs in prior months were as horrendous, with September payrolls revised to -403K from initial -284K, and October revised to -320K from -240K, amounting to a total of 199k in upward revisions. Jan-Nov 2008 net layoffs have reached 1.706 million versus 1.763 million for all of 2001, meaning the 2001 high will be well exceeded after the Dec figures.