10.1 million Americans unemployed in October

Unemployment rate zooms to 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October, up from 6.1 percent just a month earlier, as 240,000 jobs were lost, the Labor Department reported Friday. The 6.5 percent jobless rate matched the rate in March 1994 after surpassing the last recession high of 6.3 percent seen in June 2003. About 10.1 million people were unemployed in October, the highest figure in a 25-year period since the fall of 1983.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by 240,000 in October following a revised decline of 284,000 in September, which was the largest job loss in seven years. October's decline marked the 10th straight month of payroll reductions. So far in 2008, a total of 1.18 million jobs have vanished, with 651,000 coming in just the past three months.

This continuing worsen employment situation is a result from the economy's woes. A housing collapse, mounting foreclosures, hard-to-get credit and financial market upheaval have severely battered the U.S. economy and dragged the economy into unofficial recession. The economy has contracted at a 0.3 percent pace in the July-September quarter. The Federal Reserve last week ratcheted down interest rates to 1 percent and left the door open to further reductions to prevent the country from sinking into a deep and painful recession.

As U.S. consumers watch jobs disappear, they would cut spending even further, spelling more trouble for the sinking economy. As a result, the economy is predicted to keep shrinking until the first quarter of next year and the jobless rate may climb higher next year.

In the 1980-1982 recession, which is considered the worst since the Great Depression in terms of unemployment, the jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982 just as the recession ended, before inching down.

Wall Street revived somewhat after two days of big losses. The Dow Jones industrials rose 248 points.