November 10th, 2008 by Reed Allmand 
As the nation face’s one of the toughest economic crises in recent history, the country is experiencing another round of layoffs. Over 240,000 jobs were cut in October, raising the country’s unemployment rate to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent according to a report released by the Labor Department. The current unemployment rate is higher than the unemployment rate during the recession in 2001. With October’s job losses, this is the 10 th consecutive month of layoffs. In September, companies cut 127,000 jobs and in October, they cut another 284,000 jobs in an effort to put their balance sheets into the black as the economy falters. So far. 2008 has seen 1.2 million jobs lost sending the unemployment rate soaring above what anyone has experienced within the past 10 years. Currently, there are 10.1 million unemployed Americans and those unemployment numbers do not include workers who have given up on finding jobs.
Jobs lost this year include 90,000 jobs in factories, 49,000 jobs in the construction industry, retailer job layoffs of 38,000 and 45,000 white collar workers sent to the unemployment line. In Texas, Fidelity Investments plans to cut an undisclosed number of workers.
Although the economy has gained jobs especially in the service, government and healthcare industry, the job losses heavily outnumber the gains, leaving many white and blue collar workers unemployed for extended periods of time.
Many experts predict the jobless rate to climb as high as 10% mimicking the financial environment of the 1980′s.
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
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