Reports came out today that the U.S. economy lost over 524,000 jobs in December. December folks is a month where there is usally an up tick in hiring as stores bring on seasonals, instead we lost over half a million jobs. This was the 12th straight month of decline. Job losses in both October and November turned out to be deeper than previously estimated. Revised figures showed that the employers slashed 584,000 positions in November and another 423,000 in October. Job losses were widespread in December. Construction companies slashed 101,000, and factories axed a whopping 149,000 jobs. Professional and business services got rid of 113,000 jobs. Retailers eliminated nearly 67,000 jobs, and leisure and hospitality reduced employment by 22,000. That more than swamped gains in education and health care, and the government.
Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008, with 1.9 million destroyed in just the past four months.
It’s the biggest job loss in any calendar year since 1945. The unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent, the highest since early 1993 — just after the last Bush left office.
USA Today charts the job losses over the past year:
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