The Department of Labor reported that in the final two months of 2008, the worst U.S. recession in decades extracted its most significant pain to date. Over 1 million jobs were slashed in that period, raising the total for 2008 to 2.6 million Americans without jobs. That is the highest number of jobless since the end of World War II in 1945.
 
About half of the job losses – approximately 1.4 million of them – occurred in just two industries…manufacturing and construction. In December, the U.S. economy shed just over 100,000 jobs from the construction industry. During the entire year, over 630,000 jobs were lost in construction.
 
Many analysts are predicting that heavy job losses will continue to be the norm for the next few months…at least until the Obama economic recovery plan – which is designed for a major infusion of job-creating economic stimulus. However, even with a massive influx of federal stimulus spending, job losses are expected to continue throughout 2009.