Jobless Rate Jump Augurs Ill Economy ; Markets Tumble in Fear of Threat to Spending

Summary

---

Unemployment soared to 5 percent last month while job gains nearly ground to a halt, the clearest sign yet that the economy has stalled in the wake of last fall's housing and credit crisis.

Manufacturers, builders, banks and even retailers laid off more than 100,000 workers at the height of the Christmas shopping season, the Labor Department reported yesterday. Those losses were barely offset by employment gains in education, health, leisure, government and business services, which produced a net increase of just 18,000 jobs.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Jobless Rate Jump Augurs Ill Economy ; Markets Tumble in Fear of Threat to Spending

Job growth for the month and for all of 2007, at 1.33 million, were the lowest since 2003. Outside government, private sector jobs actually shrank by 13,000 in December. The unem...

See the full content of this document

---