The economy is crashing down on Jim Slovick.
The country last month shed jobs at its fastest pace in five years, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday, and Slovick knows the downward slide isn't done yet. His employer, Ryerson Steel, is closing its Carnegie plant. Slovick doesn't know when his last day of work will be, but he knows the remainder of his 39-year career is measured in weeks, not the years he'd once counted on.
At 62, he's too young to collect his full Social Security benefits but too old to start anew.
"We don't want to retire. We want to work. I'm healthy," said Slovick of McDonald. He and co-worker Jay Clayton, 55, of Carnegie shared their plight with 12 other union members during an hourlong discussion with Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and Jack Shea, head of the Allegheny County Labor Council.
"I'm 55 years old with 33 years of service," Clayton said. "Where do I go?"
Employers cut 159,000 jobs in September. The department changed its unemployment figures for July and August, saying the economy lost 4,000 more jobs than previously thought. That brings the total job losses this year to about 768,000.
"This was a very weak job report. It confirms the U.S. is in a recession," said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services.
The $700 billion-plus financial bailout passed by Congress yesterday will free up credit, getting some blood flowing in the economy again, but its effects for most people won't be immediate, Hoffman said. Job losses will continue for a while. That likely will dampen the holiday shopping season, which many businesses depend on to survive the year.
"It's going to get worse. These things don't come and go overnight," Hoffman said. The federal government can do little if anything more but ride this out, he said. "I think they've pulled as many rabbits out of their hats as they can."
Trumka, who also spoke to the United Steelworkers to stump for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, said the employment situation could be even more grim than it looks. If the unemployment rate were calculated the way it was 20 years ago, it would be close to 15 percent, rather than 6.1 percent, Trumka said.
"This economy is not working for us," Trumka said. "One out of 10 Americans who wants to work full time cannot find a full-time job."
Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed people rose by 2.2 million, mostly in construction, retail and manufacturing sectors. Long-term unemployment -- people without a job for more than half a year -- account for 2 million of the jobless.
Slovick and his 18 co-workers expect to join their ranks soon. A woman who answered the phone at Ryerson's Carnegie plant said the plant would close in three weeks. Executives at the company's corporate headquarters could not be reached for comment.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Obama's economic plan would make matters worse.
"Unlike Sen. Obama, I do not believe we will create one single American job by increasing taxes, going on a massive spending binge, and closing off our markets," McCain said in a statement.
Obama, speaking in the Philadelphia suburb of Abington, blamed the crisis on an "economic philosophy" of deregulation and reliance on market forces that he said McCain and President Bush share.
"We've tried it their way. It hasn't worked. And it won't work now," Obama said.
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