New unemployment numbers are out

Friday, January 09, 2009

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Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, Jan. 2006 to Dec. 2008. (Bureau of Labor Statistics/U.S. Department of Labor)

The unemployment numbers for December are out and the jobless rate hit 7.2 percent. Additionally, payroll employment dropped by 524,000 over the month. While this is pretty much what economists expected, it is still shocking in that it is one of the biggest monthly drops ever in this modern post-war economy. Here to tell us about how the losses have accelerated is Kelly Evans of the Wall Street Journal.

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