There are times when the bottom line should not be measured solely in dollars and cents.

This is one of those times.

The United States' unemployment rate reached double-digits last month, as many economists had expected. Last Friday, the federal government announced that companies cut approximately 190,000 jobs from their payrolls in October. America's unemployment rate, 10.2 percent, is at its highest level in 26 years.

That news coincided with another announcement: Productivity of American workers — output per hour of work — rose this fall at the fastest pace in six years.

In other words, companies are laying off workers and demanding more from those still employed. And workers, trying to hold on to what they have, are responding as the companies hope they would.

Some of the companies benefiting from workers' high productivity took federal stimulus money designed to help revive the economy.

Yet, many of those same companies aren't adding to their payrolls.

As long as the bottom line is measured in dollars and cents, companies whose profits may be ticking upward have no incentive to hire additional workers. They can make a profit with who they have.

Moreover, companies have little incentive to pay their workers more for the additional work they're doing. It's a tough cycle; productivity is up, wages remain flat or are falling.

This is not how it should work.

When production goes up, wages should inch up as well. When wages go up, workers become consumers whose purchases drive the U.S. economy. This creates new jobs, unemployment goes down, the nation recovers — and everyone is better off.

But the whole process breaks down when profit-making companies fail to do their part. If companies hold on to their profits and refuse to reinvest in the recovery, unemployment will remain high.

Likewise, taxpayer money will be spent on helping the jobless. Consumers won't be able to buy as they normally would. And the recession's aftereffects will hang around longer than they should.

This is what happens when companies that should lead recovery forget that they are part of a great economic system whose long-term health must be measured against short-term profits. True, fear of recession pain is intense; that said, sagging, at-risk companies can't be totally blamed for trimming payroll. But profit-making companies must return to normalcy.

Fighting unemployment is not the job of Washington alone, or even the job of the federal government and its member states. Fighting unemployment is the responsibility of the public and the private sectors, as well.

Unemployment hurts the unemployed and their families. Unemployment hurts the nation. And in the end, unemployment hurts the companies at the heart of our economy.

Workers are doing their part. Government is doing its part. It is time for profitable American companies to do their part.