The US economy shed 524,000 jobs in December, sending the unemployment rate to 7.2 per cent, according to official data published Friday.
The recession-ravaged economy lost 2.6 million jobs over the course of 2008, the most since 1945, the Labor department said.
Of those, 1.9 million were lost in the past four months. The jobless rate, which is calculated on a separate household survey, climbed to 7.2 per cent from 6.8 percent a month earlier, hitting the highest level since January 1993, the report showed.
The number of job losses was roughly in line with forecasts but the unemployment rate rose above the consensus estimate of 7.0 per cent.