Labor says jobless pay falls short

A record 4,662,000 workers are receiving unemployment compensation, but, according to the AFL-CIO, that leaves 63 percent of the nation's 11.3 million jobless workers - or about 6.6 million - without benefits, Monitor contributor Ed Townsend writes.The federation calls this a ''disaster'' that the next Congress should remedy.The government reported that the number receiving unemployment compensation checks in the week ending Oct. 9 (the last official count) showed a 43,000 increase over the previous week, a total that eclipsed by 1,000 the record high at the end of May 1975.The extraordinary high level of new claims for unemployment benefits since Oct. 9 has lead to forecasts by the Democratic-controlled Congressional Joint Economic Committee that the national unemployment rate will reach 10.5 percent when October figures come out Friday. The rate for September was 10.1 percent.AFL-CIO economist Ray Oswald sees ''more double-digit unemployment on the way,'' and economists for the National Association of Manufacturers agreed that the rate ''will rise somewhat higher in November and December.''The report by the Democratic-controlled economic committee came out in advance of election day because, the committee said, ''It is felt that Congress and the American public ought to be aware of what the October figure will be prior to the release next Friday.''