Just a heads up…

Economists expect as many as 350,000 jobs to have been lost during the month of November — the largest decline in employment since May 1980 saw 431,000 jobs eliminated. The Labor Department will release its monthly report at 8:30AM EST today.

2008 has seen an average of 118,000 jobs lost a month, though that pace has picked up significantly since August. At least 1.3 million jobs have been cut thus far.

Today’s report could bring unemployment in the United States to 6.8% from the current level of 6.5%. Economists for Market Watch fear seem to believe it could top out at 9%. In other words, we’re looking at quite a bit more pain before any of it gets better.