533,000

The American economy shed an unreal 533,000 jobs in November, and making matters worse, the jobless numbers for September and October of this year were just revised to show another 200,000 lost jobs.

Last month’s decline was the worst figure in 34 years, and brings the 2008 job loss total to nearly 2 million – including 1.3 million in the last three months alone.

And guess what … more bad news is coming.

From Fortune contributor Anthony Karydakis:

A closer look at the numbers shows even more dark signs. The losses were widespread across the economy: In the last three months alone, manufacturing has lost 258,000 jobs, while the declines in construction and retail trade have totaled 201,000 and 229,000 respectively.

In fact, the reported 85,000 decline in manufacturing jobs last month alone would have been even bleaker if it weren’t for 27,000 striking machinists at Boeing going back to work.

The numbers offer hard evidence that the erosion in labor markets has gathered steam at an alarming place since the financial-market crisis erupted in September.

And the numbers provide strong evidence that employers are cutting back quickly on their use of workers still on the job: The average workweek dropped to 33.5 hours, its lowest level since the inception of that measure in 1964, and overtime hours declined as well.

That means more layoffs are forthcoming, and since employment figures generally lag behind other recession indicators, we’re headed for what the Counting Crows would call a “Long December” and a brutal 2009 … and perhaps beyond.

Additionally, Karydakis – a NYU economics professor – puts a decidedly depressing spin on all of this.

“This is not a run-of-the-mill recession but a historic event,” he says.

Yikes.

Obviously the $2 trillion plus that we’ve shelled out in government bailouts, loans and other short-term fixes over the last three months alone have failed to even make a dent in this epic disaster.

Anyone up for some common sense fiscal conservatism, perhaps?

Oh wait … we elected Obama. Never mind.

Then again, it wouldn’t have made much difference had we elected McCain.

We’re in this mess because both parties have sold out (and continue to sell out) the taxpayers to government bureaucrats, labor bosses and corporate special interests.

We’ve also sold out the free market economy to knee-jerk, short bus socialism.

We got into this mess because of government, and won’t get out of this mess until the people realize that more government (and more debt) is hurting, not helping the situation.

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