Across the country unemployment is around 10 percent, but for communities of color that number goes up to 15.6%. For the Workers Independent News Karen Miller finds out how African Americans living in Washington DC are doing during this recession and if President Obama’s economic recovery package is providing relief.
39 year old, Washington DC electrician Robert Smith was recently unemployed for 7 months. He says he and his colleagues have never seen it worse.

By Doug Cunningham

Unemployment in Detroit is at nightmarish levels. Officially it’s 27 percent. But Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says the real joblessness among Detroit workers is near 50 percent. According to the 2008 U.S. Census an estimated 48.5 percent of Detroit men between 20 and 64 didn’t have jobs.

Economists are expecting some stormy weather when the new unemployment numbers are released Friday. Jesse Russell reports:

On Friday the Labor Department will release October’s unemployment numbers and economists are preparing for what they predict will be more bad news – breaking the national 10-percent unemployed mark. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz the country is already there due to the number of people who have stopped participating in the labor market:

By Doug Cunningham

New York AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes says the Obama administration must review and re-think America’s trade policies with an eye toward jobs creation here at home.

[Hughes]: “We seek a strategic pause and review to look at existing trade agreements and build a comprehensive new trade policy that will support the creation of good jobs at home.”

The U.S. has lost jobs for 21 consecutive months.

What was smooth sailing for a bill in the House of Representatives extending unemployment benefits an extra 13 weeks for states with rates over 8.5 percent could be heading for choppy waters in the Senate. Senators Harry Reid and Max Baucus proposed adding four weeks for every state and 13 weeks for the 27 hardest hit states. Senator Jeanne Shaheen plans to introduce an amendment to the Reid-Baucus bill tat would instead give 13 extra weeks of unemployment to every state in the union plus four extra weeks for the hardest hit.

Lede: America’s jobs picture remains bleak as another 263,000 jobs vanish in September. Doug Cunningham has more.

By Doug Cunningham