Layoff Nation: Job Losses Keep Coming

Jan. 9, 2009— -- An estimated 524,000 Americans who had jobs at Thanksgiving were unemployed by the New Year, according to a report by the Department of Labor.

The U.S. economy has lost jobs for 12 consecutive months, at an alarming pace. Since September, on average, 483,000 jobs were lost per month, or as many as 16,000 a day.

The Department of Labor's announcement brought the job loss total to 2.6 million in 2008. Unemployment levels rose to 7.2 percent, the highest since January 1993.

The losses make 2008 the worst year for layoffs since the end of World War II, when 2.75 million jobs were lost (that shrinkage was not owing so much to an economic slump, however, as to the exit of workers temporarily employed in war-related jobs). The December losses also show an accelerating number of layoffs in recent months, leaving the prospect for workers in 2009 that much more grim.

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Boeing became the latest corporate giant to cut jobs, announcing Friday that 4,500 Boeing workers will lose their jobs in 2009.

"We could quite possibly see unemployment close to 9 percent or even double digits by the end of the year," said Heather Boushey, an economist at the Center for American Progress.

Around the country, state unemployment offices have been overwhelmed by the growing volume of new claims.

Mike Stabrawa, 53, filed for unemployment for the first time in his life when the paper plant he worked at for 35 years permanently shut down in December.

"Everything was working smoothly until about three weeks ago," Stabrawa said. "It's the first time I've been without a job in my entire life. So that's the biggest thing about it. I want to work. I want to be a working guy."

The beleaguered manufacturing industry lost nearly 150,000 jobs last month. But the pain is limited to one sector. Unemployment is rising among all kinds of workers, including college graduates, who are usually spared.

"I have to say I think on every front this is the worst recession I have ever seen," said Trudy Steinfeld, executive director of the New York University Career Placement Center.

Steinfeld says that she has seen fewer recruiters, and employers have made fewer offers than in years past to graduating students.