Jobless rate jumps to 7.2 percent in Dec.
Caps year with most annual job losses in the post-World War II era 
WASHINGTON – The U.S. unemployment rate bolted to 7.2 percent in December, the highest level in 16 years, as nervous employers slashed 524,000 jobs. The labor market is expected to remain weak as mass layoffs continue. The Labor Department’s report, released Friday, underscored the terrible toll the deepening recession is having on workers and companies, and highlights the hard task President-elect Barack Obama faces in resuscitating the flat-lined economy. For all of 2008, the economy lost a net total of 2.6 million jobs. That was the most since 1945, when nearly 2.8 million jobs were lost. Although the number of jobs in the U.S. has more than tripled since then, losses of this magnitude are still being painfully felt. … The U.S. recession, which just entered its second year, is already the longest in a quarter century, and is likely to stretch on well into this year. The fact that the country is battling a housing collapse, a lockup in lending and the worst financial crisis since the 1930s make the current downturn especially dangerous. UPDATE: Looks like the more accurate comparison is to 1982. Several economists have pointed out today that the job loss in 2008 was the largest since 1945. That’s factually right — and substantively wrong. The only reason that last year’s job loss was larger than 1982’s was that the country and the work force were so much larger last year than in 1982. Ignoring that difference makes the comparison meaningless.
Jobless rate jumps to 7.2 percent in Dec.
