Here at the Fool, we've searched high and low across the Web to find the stories that will matter the most to you today. We hope you find this Friday edition informative.

1. Unemployment still on the rise
Job numbers for September just came out, and they're not pretty. While estimates were set at "only" 180,000 jobs lost, the job market outdid (or is that underdid?) itself once again, by ending the month with a loss of 263,000 jobs. You know it's going to be a rough day for stocks when each story reporting these numbers immediately uses sentences like "the unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high, calling into question the sustainability of the economic recovery." (Read more at Bloomberg.)

2. Why Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) can't cut it in China
Despite its dominance in the United States and many foreign markets, Google has struggled in China. Foreign Policy looks at what China-based Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) has done to stymie the search giant and what Google must learn if it wants to compete in China.

3. CIT (NYSE:CIT) keeps fighting off bankruptcy
CIT is launching a debt exchange plan in which it's asking existing bondholders to swap out existing debt for a mix of preferred stock and new debt maturing in four to eight years. Apparently, it's kind of a Hail Mary play for the company; CIT is telling its bondholders that the alternative to its new debt exchange is a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. As Foolish colleague Brian Richards quipped: "CIT buys some time with a debt-swap plan. Longer term, it's looking to turn itself into a bank." (Read more at The New York Times.)

4. General Electric (NYSE:GE) looks to spin off Leno
Chatter continues that General Electric is in talks to spin off its NBC Universal unit, whether through an IPO or a partnership. The unlikely suitor for the struggling network and movie studio? None other than Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA). The Wall Street Journal has more discussion on how this tie-up would change the way content is delivered to consumers in the digital era.

5. Sorkin discusses Morgan Stanley's (NYSE:MS) brush with joining Lehman in the loser pile
While Morgan Stanley now appears healthy (at least by current banking standards), few have discussed how close it came to joining Lehman Brothers in collapse last September. In a Q&A with Vanity Fair, Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of the new novel Too Big to Fail, discusses just how imminent the nightmare scenario of another large banking collapse was: "If the Mitsubishi deal had not gone through, I truly believe that Morgan Stanley would have either gone by the wayside like Lehman Brothers, probably putting so much pressure on Goldman that it may have toppled as well, and we would have seen even greater havoc in the marketplace."

And that's your Friday morning recap. Check Fool.com throughout the day for commentary and analysis on these and other stories. Or you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook, or through our email digests.