Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the unemployment rate had risen to 6.5% in October, the highest rate since 1994. More than 1 million American jobs have been lost so far in 2008, and the job loss rate is accelerating- over half of those jobs were lost in August, September and October. Clearly this bad news is confirmation that we're in a recession. The worst of the financial crisis is over, but it will take time for the liquidity injections to work its way through the economy and companies' bottom-lines. In the meantime, Main Street is feeling the full brunt of the crisis.

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