San José, CA – On March 6, the Labor Department reported that the economy lost 650,000 more jobs in February. The report also said that the number of jobs lost in December and January was revised upwards by 150,000. This brought the total job losses since the recession began to 4.4 million, more than half lost in the last four months alone. The total number of jobs has shrunk by 3.2% since the recession began, the most in more than 50 years.
San Jose, CA – New economic data released in early January 2008 showed that the U.S. economy was on the edge of a recession in December. On Jan. 2, the Institute for Supply Management reported that the manufacturing sector shrank in December. Their index fell to 47.7 from 50.8 in November, the lowest level since April of 2003. Then on Jan. 4, the Department of Labor said that the unemployment rate rose to 5% in December, from 4.7% the month before, the biggest one-month jump since the last recession in 2001. In the same report, the Labor Department also said that only 18,000 new jobs were created in December, the weakest number since August of 2003.
