Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/december-job-losses-compound-economic-woes Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Unemployment rose to 7.2 percent in December, the highest since 1993, according to a new report from the Labor Department. Employers cut 524,000 jobs, and some economy-watchers fear more cuts are still to come. Ray Suarez reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. RAY SUAREZ: The dismal December unemployment number was one more sign the year-long recession is deepening. The 500,000 more jobs lost brings the total to nearly 2 million Americans who've lost work since September.Brookings Institution economist Rebecca Blank says those losses are widespread. REBECCA BLANK, Brookings Institution: It isn't just manufacturing and construction, which is where it started, but it's now feeding through into the whole consumer sector, retail trade, business services. And it's the broad-spread nature of this that really tells you how bad this recession is, that there's no one who's escaping it. RAY SUAREZ: According to Blank, just one job sector has fared well so far: health care.This morning, President-elect Obama used the latest news to push his plan to save or create 3 million jobs. U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: There are American dreams that are being deferred and that are being denied because of the current economic climate. There's a devastating economic crisis that will become more and more difficult to contain with time. RAY SUAREZ: That possibility of a cascading crisis is real, says Rebecca Blank. REBECCA BLANK: If we don't act quickly, if the numbers continue to deteriorate in the next several months at the same rate they have been deteriorating in the last several months, it simply increases the hole you have to come out of.