In the latest indication of plummeting corporate confidence, companies in almost every industry from construction to pharmaceuticals have announced massive job cuts worldwide. The Takeaway talks to Jim Ellis, assistant managing editor at Business Week for a preview of what's to come.

How much good will President Obama’s stimulus plan do for the states that are hurting the most? An analysis by the investigative journalists at ProPublica has found that much of the transportation and infrastructure spending won’t go to areas with the highest unemployment rates. In fact, states with higher unemployment rates would get far less money per capita for than states with lower unemployment rates. ProPublica’s Michael Grabell and The Takeaway’s Andrea Bernstein are here to discuss the implications.

Track all of The Takeaway's coverage of the stimulus package

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.

President-elect Barack Obama has called for an economic stimulus package in stark terms, but can his cautionary words and economic plan be effective amidst widespread unemployment and incredibly bleak retail sales? Maya MacGuineas, Director of New America Foundation's Fiscal Policy Program, and Jamie Jones, a reporter for the Dalton, Georgia Daily Citizen, join John to continue our economic roundtable.

Listen to part one of our economic roundtable.

In case you missed the President-elect's speech, here it is courtesy of AP/Youtube.

As China's economy slows, unemployment grows and authorities worry this could mean social unrest. As next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising, the goverment says that finding jobs for university students is a top priority. Dr. Kerry Brown, a senior fellow in Asia research at Chatham House, joins The Takeaway to discuss the issues.

And the leading indicators aren't looking any better.