A far more troubling milestone for the Democrats than Tuesday’s election results was reached today, as the unemployment rate jumped above 10% for the first time since 1983. 190,000 jobs were lost overall in October, and while the August and September figures were revised upward (-154,000 in Aug., -219,000 in September), the nation is still averaging around 200,000 lost jobs a month in this, the fourth month of what can be described as the “job-loss recovery.”

Weekly job loss claims for last week remained higher that what you would expect if the economy were adding jobs, so increased job loss is likely to continue in the short term. And with worker productivity surging, companies are becoming used to squeezing more out of less, potentially obviating the need for hiring new workers.

This is the dilemma facing Democrats and the White House right now. In New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday core Democratic demos did not turn out at the same rate as in 2008. This core has been hardest hit by the recession, and typically doesn’t turn out in off-year elections anyway. While some conservative Democrats are rattled, they seem not to understand that reversing the economic trajectory is the answer, and that means legislating boldly, not with timidity. Some endangered incumbents are saying they want to focus on jobs, which is correct, but that means forwarding actual policies that would create them:

Setting aside elements of the progressive wish list in order to focus on improving the labor market is a reasonable idea. But this crowd doesn’t have any actual ideas for doing that. It seems to me that there’s good reason to think that resolving uncertainty about the future direction of American energy policy and immigration policy would, in fact, help spur economic growth. But I’d also be amendable to having congress take up additional stimulus legislation as a way to spur economic growth. Or maybe they could do tax reform. But as best one can tell Tanner & Bayh & Lincoln don’t want to do any of those things or anything else. It’s sad.

I think Robert Reich has this right, and so does Paul Krugman today. There are very real dangers associated with being timid on economic policy right now, for example, with not legislating strongly on health care and energy, offering health security to individuals and businesses while lowering costs, and building a new energy economy while saving the planet from disaster and the crushing costs associated with that. And the country needs more economic stimulus. The first one was too small, and it staved off disaster but did not reverse unemployment. Just a small mini-stimulus like cash for clunkers amounted to a substantial portion of economic growth in the third quarter. We need more policies like that. Here’s Krugman:

Administration officials would presumably argue that they were constrained by political realities, that a bolder policy couldn’t have passed Congress. But they never tested that assumption, and they also never gave any public indication that they were doing less than they wanted. The official line was that policy was just right, making it hard to explain now why more is needed [...]

The problem is that it’s not clear what Mr. Obama can do about this prospect. Conventional wisdom in Washington seems to have congealed around the view that budget deficits preclude any further fiscal stimulus — a view that’s all wrong on the economics, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Meanwhile, the Democratic base, so energized last year, has lost much of its passion, at least partly because the administration’s soft-touch approach to Wall Street has seemed to many like a betrayal of their ideals.

The president, then, having failed to exploit his early opportunities, is pinned down in his too-small beachhead.

And so the cautiousness continues, with ominous consequences for Democratic political futures, but more important, for the livelihoods of millions.

UPDATE: Christina Romer of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers sends this statement:

Today’s employment report contained both signs of hope for recovery and painful evidence of continued labor market weakness.

Payroll employment declined 190,000 in October, continuing the steady trend of moderating job loss that began last spring. Furthermore, the employment loss in both August and September was revised down substantially. Importantly, employment in temporary help services, typically one of the first industries to see job gains, increased by 33,700. The motor vehicle industry also posted employment gains. These are hopeful signs that the unprecedented policy actions are working to stabilize the economy and put us on a path toward recovery.

The unemployment rate, however, rose four-tenths of a percentage point, to 10.2 percent. That this occurred despite the rise in real GDP last quarter reflects both the typical lag between GDP growth and unemployment decline, and the recent exceptional increases in productivity. Having the unemployment rate reach double-digits is a stark reminder of how much work remains to be done before American families see the job gains and reduced unemployment that they need and deserve.

UPDATE II: Former Obama economic adviser Leo Hindery pegs the effective unemployment rate at a shocking 19.2%.