Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The employment report for November is out and it’s a shocker: 533,000 jobs lost — the largest monthly job loss total since December 1974. That’s far more than the 325,000 we were expecting. That brings the total number of jobs lost so far this year to 1.9 million.

The numbers for September and October were also revised higher, which means two-thirds of this year’s job losses have occurred in the last three months. And that three-month payroll loss of 1.2 million makes it the worst three-month streak in nearly 34 years (Dec ’74 to Feb ’74). The unemployment rate, meanwhile, rose to 6.7% from 6.5% in October.

Stocks are down sharply after the employment report..the Dow down more than 200 points for now.

The CEOs of Detroit’s Big Three return to Capitol Hill this morning. This time around they’ll appear before the House Financial Services Committee to make their case for a larger bailout than they asked for just two weeks ago. On Thursday, the executives – along with UAW President Ron Gettelfinger — generally faced less hostility from members of the Senate Banking Committee than they did at their last hearing, but they still heard a lot of tough questions and the bailout push clearly faces an uphill battle for approval.

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Van Jones
President, Green For All

With our economic crises mounting, Americans are desperate for some bold, comprehensive and holistic solutions. Will either candidate propose them?

Here are three questions that I hope both candidates are asked.

1. Would you support or oppose a multibillion-dollar “green economic stimulus” package?

We have bailed out the banks and - one hopes - avoided a financial meltdown. But we are still in a recession. We need a stimulus - and sending people checks to go shop for a day is not going to cut it this time.

To make matters worse, high fuel prices are making people even more desperate. Winter heating bills are about to go through the roof. At least both presidential candidates now admit that we are in a real recession (not a psychological one). But what will either of them do about it?

The smart move would be to pump dollars into the economy to the nation’s infrastructure - putting people to work repairing our energy grid, fast-tracking solar energy projects, jump starting wind energy projects, weatherizing and retrofitting homes and buildings. Such a program would have the added benefit of preparing millions of homes for the harsh winter, reducing energy prices, cutting carbon emissions, improving air quality and curbing our oil dependence. Even in tough financial times, a smart investment like that would be foolish to pass up.

A report by the Center for American Progress and economists from the University of Massachusetts’ Political Economy Research Institute is promising. It demonstrates how a new Green Recovery program that spends $100 billion over two years would create two million new jobs.

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Editor’s Note: The Ethics Guy, Dr. Bruce Weinstein, writes the ethics column for BusinessWeek.com.Here is Dr. Weinsteins followup blog to to downsizing: “Downsizing 101 - When You Have to Do It“

Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D.
AC360° Contributor
The Ethics Guy, BusinessWeek.com

Americans are bracing for massive job losses in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Even before the recent crisis on Wall Street, anxiety about employment was high; earlier this year, the U.S. Labor Dept. released a report stating that there had been a net loss of 63,000 jobs, which was the biggest decline in five years.

Whether or not your own job is in jeopardy in the near future, at some point in your career you may become a victim of downsizing. What should you do? What you should avoid doing at all costs? We’ll consider these questions in this column, the second of a two-part series on the ethics of downsizing.

WHAT’S ETHICS GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Being laid off is one of the most traumatic events we can experience. On the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale, getting fired is the eighth most stressful life experience, behind the death of a spouse (#1) or going to jail (#4), but ahead of the death of a close friend (#17), foreclosure on a mortgage or loan (#21), or in-law troubles (#24). Rightly or wrongly, many of us define ourselves by our jobs, which is why one of the first questions we ask someone we meet is, “What do you do?”

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