09 Jan
Worst year for jobs since ‘45
Annual loss biggest since end of World War II. Unemployment rate rises to 7.2%.
The hemorrhaging of American jobs accelerated at a record pace at the end of 2008, bringing the year’s total job losses to 2.6 million or the highest level in more than six decades.
A sobering U.S. Labor Department jobs report Friday showed the economy lost 524,000 jobs in December and 1.9 million in the year’s final four months, after the credit crisis began in September.
The unemployment rate rose to 7.2% last month from 6.7% in November - its highest rate since January 1993.
The steep annual drop in jobs marked the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945, the year in which World War II ended.
…more…