Americans are suffering, not able to pay their bills, hard to keep afloat and this is serious.
The nation'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.
I have been writing about unemployment and lack of jobs. There is much blame to go around, but it starts in Washington, DC and with George W. Bush our president, who sat around and did NOTHING, until it was desperately too late.
With the recession in full swing, the nation’s employers shed 524,000 jobs in December, the government reported Friday, and a rapidly deteriorating economy promised more significant losses in the months ahead. December’s job losses brought the total for 2008 to 2.6 million, spanning a recession that started 12 months ago.
The recession was in full swing well over a year ago, Bush did not admit to it until late summer, early fall. At this pace, expect double digit unemployment, loss of jobs by spring. Bad news, all around.
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