(Filed Under Fashion News). For the second consecutive month, manufacturing and retail were particularly impacted by the recession. According to the United States Department of Labor’s October situation report released on November 6th, Construction experienced the highest job losses of any sector, followed closely by manufacturing and retail. Overall, the nation’s unemployment rate rose from 9.8 percent at the end of September to 10.2 percent at the end of October, with 190,000 jobs cut during the month. According to a November 6th The New York Times article, this marked the first time in 26 years that the unemployment rate has reached double digits.

Manufacturing shed 61,000 jobs during the month, compared to 51,000 jobs in September. Nondurable goods' jobs—which include those in apparel and textiles—plunged 17 percent from September, with apparel jobs dropping .6 percent and textile jobs dropping 1.3 percent. Overall, the manufacturing sector has lost 2.1 million jobs since December 2007.

Retail shed 40,000 jobs compared to 39,000 in September, with department stores among the worst-performing categories in the sector with an 11.1 percent job drop. Clothing and clothing accessory stores, however, manages to eek out a slight job increase of 2.7 percent.

Despite the dismal news, the Times November 6th article reported that some economists see the pace of job loss as continuing to wane in October, since between November 2008 and April 2009 job losses averaged at 645,000 per month, which then dropped to an average of 345,000 per month between last May and July. According to the Times, over the last three months, job losses have averaged at 188,000.

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Published 11-09-2009 by Amanda Torres Price