Another sobering government labor report released Friday showed the economy lost 524,000 jobs in December, bringing 2008’s total job loss to just below 2.6 million.
Last year’s steep drop in employment marked the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945, the year in which World War II ended.
According to the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, the unemployment rate rose to 7.2% last month from 6.7% in November and higher than economists’ forecasts of 7%.
Source: CNN Money

job losses chart