In 2009, more men are putting an emphasis on stability and security in their job and are looking for a girlfriend as a potential wife, according to the annual Great Male Survey by askmen.com

But how are women fairing in comparison?

Yahoo! Shine asked 19,000 women in the Great Female Survey and found that more women see their career on hold. Fifty-six percent stated that any upward movement in their career is cut off because of the economic crisis while only 24 percent of men saw the same problem.

Asked how their unemployment status had changed recently, 28 percent of women said they had to take a pay cut, pay freeze or lost their job altogether - 10 percent more than their male counterparts.

Looking ahead, women were split on wether the worst of the crisis was behind them, whereas every second man thought it would get better from here on out.

November’s job losses were the steepest since December 1974, when 602,000 jobs were shed. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a reduction of 340,000 jobs.

“This is a clear employment blowout. Firms are reacting as dramatically as they can to make sure they have cost structures they can survive the recession we are in,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

One reader commenting on the site feels the job losses have not hit bottom. “I predict 30% unemployment by March of 2009. The retailers are gonna tank right after Christmas. Look for some really good deals!” wrote Smacktle.

Not all responses were as dire.

“Well these are pretty bad numbers. This will be a real test to see how much bad news is priced into the markets. Futures are down quite a bit, but I actually expected them to be down a lot more given these terrible recessionary numbers,” says Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist for LPL Financial in Boston.

“It might be hard in future months to get numbers that are any worse. It might be good that we raced to some of the worst numbers we’ve had because perhaps it can’t get incrementally worse.”

Some of our readers found the data less shocking.

“This is not a big surprise, really. One has only to observe how many fewer cars are on the road shortly after rush hour, how many empty seats are on the planes into or out of major hubs, how many fewer people are in front of you in any line for services from movie theaters to tire stores, how much more quickly you are seated in a restaurant,” writes Jaime Simmons.

What you think about today’s unemployment numbers?

(Pictured above: A member of the Laborers Union Local 89 waits outside his local union hall after placing his name on the job list in San Marcos, California November 7, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Blake)

AT&T is joining the ranks of companies sending its employees to the unemployment line. The top U.S. phone company says it will cut 12,000 jobs as the economic crisis bites deeper. Chemical maker Dupont added its own dash of dour news, announcing 2,500 job cuts. While there was some cause for cheer from weekly jobless data that showed the number of workers filing new claims for benefits unexpectedly fell last week, the figure was still in line with a shrinking labor market and economy. So, really, no good news there.

“We are going to see more layoffs as the economy continues to weaken,” said Barclays capital economist Michelle Meyer.

What do you think? If you have a job, are you worried about losing it? If you’re out of work, how tough is the market?