History for Chron

Political opponents of President Ronald Reagan blamed his economic policies for causing a recession and leading to the highest unemployment rate since 1975.

The U.S. Labor Department reported pre-Christmas layoffs were largely responsible for a spike of pink slips in November. Overall, the number of jobless people rose 484,000 to about 9 million people.

“What we do not need … is and administration that plays Santa Claus for the wealthy and Scrooge for average families, the needy and working men and women of America,” said Edward Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts.

According to government estimates, the 9 million people out of work was the most since 1939. However, the unemployment rate was twice as high at that time because of fewer overall workers.

Administration officials, however, vowed to stick to Reagan’s policies.

“This is the price you have to pay for bringing down inflation,” said Larry Speakes, who is the deputy White House press secretary. “We feel that the proper measures are in place to put the economy back on track and that unemployment will begin to abate sometime next year.”