2008 - The Largest Job Loss Since WWII

Wow, what a year 2008 was, and not in a good way, especially for the American worker.

Today, the U.S. Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy lost 524,000 non-farm jobs in December, its 12th straight monthly decline. Now that the year's tentative final tally is in, the 2.6 million jobs lost in 2008 is the worst since 1945, the year WWII ended. Of course, the population and economy are a lot larger now, but that doesn't dampen the sobriety of the news, since the employment blood-letting is likely to continue well into 2009.

According the Labor Department's data, over 11 million workers are now unemployed, and the country's unemployment rate has jumped 2.2%, just since April.

Just a few months ago, many leading economists were projecting unemployment topping out in the 7% to 8% range, but now it's looking like these projections will end up being too optimistic, possibly by a long shot, as layoffs are accelerating, and several big layoffs announcements in the past month or so have not even worked their way into the data yet.

Lest some say this blog has gotten too morose, here is what today's Wall Street Journal has to say: "By some broader measures, labor-market conditions are even worse than the main numbers suggest. When marginally attached and involuntary part-time workers are included, the rate of unemployed or underemployed workers reached 13.5% last month, up almost six percentage points from a year earlier." (WSJ 1/9/08, on-line edition).

On the positive side, a few areas are showing resilience, with increased employment in healthcare, education and government (seemingly nothing can stop the government from growing!).

Whatever your political persuasion may be, every American should be rooting for the incoming Obama administration to achieve many early successes on the economic front.