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Employment Situation Summary

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: DECEMBER 2008

Nonfarm payroll employment declined sharply in December, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.8 to 7.2 percent.
Payroll employment fell by 524,000 over the month and by 1.9 million over the last 4 months of 2008.  In December, job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors.
The unemployment rates for adult men (7.2 percent), adult women (5.9 percent), and whites (6.6 percent) increased in December.  The jobless rates for teenagers (20.8 percent), blacks (11.9 percent), and Hispanics (9.2 percent) were little changed over the month.  The unemployment rate for Asians was 5.1 percent in December, not seasonally adjusted.
Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 315,000 to 6.5 million in December.  Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2.7 million.  The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 2.6 million in December and was up by 1.3 million in 2008.
Weekly Hours - In December, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls fell by 0.2 hour to 33.3 hours, seasonally adjusted--the lowest level on record for the series, which began in 1964.