Men look for jobs at a fair in New Jersey. (AP)

New York, Jan. 9: With the recession in full swing, the nation’s employers shed 524,000 jobs in December, the government reported today, and a rapidly deteriorating economy promised more significant losses in the months ahead.

December’s job losses brought the total for 2008 to 2.6 million, spanning a recession that started 12 months ago.

The unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 per cent in December from 6.8 per cent in November and 5 per cent last April, when the recession was four months old and just beginning to bite. More than 11 million Americans are now unemployed.

President-elect Barack Obama said today that the alarming figures showed that Washington must act quickly and decisively to enact a stimulus plan. Behind the numbers, he said, are “real lives, real suffering, real fears”.

Obama said he remained open to “a whole host” of ideas from Democrats and Republicans alike and was focused on getting something done rather than who gets credit for it. Asked at a news conference whether he was worried that some lawmakers think his proposed stimulus programme, with a cost estimated at $775 billion, was too big, while others think it is too small, he said he was open to consultations with Congress.

On Wall Street, the markets fell on the report, with all three major exchanges down more than one per cent.

The 7.2 per cent was the highest unemployment rate since January 1993, when the country was still shaking off a jobless recovery from the 1990-91 recession. The loss in total jobs for 2008 was the largest since 1945.

“These numbers, back to back, of more than a half million a month suggest that the US economy is in a freefall,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight. “It indicates that unless something is done and done quickly to turn this economy around, we’re looking at an awful situation this year.”

The toll of job losses cut across every sector. Some 101,000 construction jobs were lost from November to December, in addition to 149,000 in manufacturing. The retail sector shed 67,000 jobs while professional and business services lost 113,000. The few areas of growth were in education and health care, which added 45,000 jobs in December, and government, which added 7,000 jobs.