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U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls Drops 524K, Unemployment Rate Hits 15-Year High
Friday, 09 January 2009 12:33:33 GMT  |  David Song, Currency Analyst
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The U.S. economy lost 524K jobs in December, which was followed by a 584K drop in the previous month, and marked the biggest slump in employment since the end of World War II in 1945. The sharp downturn in the labor market pushed the unemployment rate to a15-year high of 7.2% from 6.8% in November, and conditions are likely to get worse as the world’s largest economy faces its longest recession in over a quarter century. Nevertheless, President-elect Obama said that the slump in the labor market reflects the ‘urgent’ need for a stimulus plan, and went onto boast that his administration plans to create or save 3.0M jobs over the next two years. However, as the U.S. lost approximately 2.6M jobs in 2008 and is widely expected to shed more jobs this year, potential efforts by the Obama administration to mitigate the downward spiral in the labor market may have little or almost no impact on the real economy.

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