The U.S. economy shed 467,000 jobs last month as unemployment ticked up one tenth of a percentage point to 9.5 percent.  Since the recession began in December 2007, payroll employment has dropped by 6.5 million, and the unemployment rate has increased by 4.6 percentage points.

Everywhere you look, employers are laying off workers as we struggle to get through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression:

• 557 CPS administrators were given pink slips this week
• Caterpillar announced 2,200 layoffs recently with 1,500 coming in Illinois
• Both the state and city are threatening massive layoffs as they struggle to balance their budgets 
• John Deere announced 800 workers have accepted buyouts as part of a cost-saving measure after laying off nearly 500 production workers

The Economic Policy Institute says the job growth of the last nine years has now been completely wiped out.