In the forest of statistics that describe the economy, a few figures sometimes stand out. October's jobless figures, for example. Outside agriculture, 415,000 jobs were lost last month, almost double the number most analysts expected. The unemployment rate jumped half a percentage point to 5.4%, the biggest rise in more than 20 years. The jobless rate for black people rose by a whole percentage point, to 9.7%. In sum, if anyone still needed proof, the economy is in trouble.
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