Sorry to say that the jobs report for October is bleak. According to ADP National Employment, 203,000 jobs were lost.

Since the recession started, U.S. job losses have risen from 7.6 million to 15 million.

Here are the numbers by sectors:

The United States is not alone. We just saw the unemployment rate creep higher to 9.8% for September, and the rest of the world is coming with us.

The worldwide recession is still circling the globe, it seems, leaving slashed jobs in its wake. While the rise in unemployment is essentially a fact of life, how countries are responding to it differs widely. Some are spending aggressively to protect jobs; for example, by chipping in some extra cash to pay for shorter work weeks.

In the 30 countries comprising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), unemployment is as low as 3.2% in the Netherlands and as high as 17.6% in Spain, as of July 2009.

Unemployment is at its highest level since 1983, hitting 9.8% last month. The Department of Labor announced that 263,000 jobs were lost. This follows a revised loss of 201,000 jobs in August (lower than first reported). Nobody expected the August unemployment reprieve to last, and the increase suggests that the forecasted 10.3% unemployment rate for early next year will be realized.

Originally, the forecasted unemployment drop for September was 175,000, according to Bloomberg News, with individual economists surveyed reporting in a range of 100,000 to 260,000.

Job losses continued to mount in September. Unfortunately, the numbers are even worse than expected.

According to the ADP National Employment Report, employers shed 254,000 jobs in September. Analysts had been expecting to see the number of job losses at 200,000 in the month.

Here's a great surprise: Job losses slowed dramatically in May.

Let's look at the numbers:

• Non-farm payrolls dropped 345,000. Economists had expected a drop of 525,000.
• The economy has lost 6 million jobs since December 2007.
• The unemployment rate jumped to 9.4%, the highest since August 1983.
• Economists expect to see 10% unemployment soon.

Here's one that people are also trying to blame on executives at the Big Three automakers -- the private aviation industry is hurting. Can you hear the violins starting?

Reportedly, corporate "giants ranging from Bank of America to Time Warner are grounding planes," thanks to the faltering economy and public outcry.

How can this be traced back to the automakers? The public outrage really started when the CEOs of the automakers eschewed a more economical style of transport for the lush trappings of their private jets when they were headed to Capitol Hill.

Back on tax day, my friend and colleague Elizabeth Harrow wondered if Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) would announce job cuts when it reports earnings tomorrow. Ms. Harrow looked at a report in The New York Times about preparations for a "significant round of layoffs" and then took a look at the option activity on the Internet search portal a week ahead of earnings.

Something that Elizabeth noted was the fact that the 15 strike was going to assume the mantle of peak call open interest when the market opens for trading festivities today. This level could be a major sticking point for the stock, as Yahoo hasn't closed atop the $15 level since late 2008.

At roughly 7:30 AM EST, National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) released its third-quarter earnings report. The semiconductor company announced earnings of 9 cents per diluted share -- down from 16 cents per share in the second quarter.

In last year's third quarter, NSM reported earnings per diluted share of 29 cents per share. According to MarketWatch, the Street expected NSM to post a loss of 5 cents per share. Quarterly revenue dropped to $292 million, short of the consensus estimate of $296.8 million.