1-07-08, 9:25 am

Unemployment worsened to 5 percent—sinking a whopping three-tenths of percentage point, from 4.7 percent in November, the largest single jump since the slowdown following Sept. 11, 2001.

Not even one week into the New Year, the Bush administration has brought our nation the worst unemployment rate in two years, a stock market that lost more than 200 points on the first day of 2008 trading—its worst trading day since Sept. 11, 2001—and oil that reached the dreaded $100-per-barrel mark.

Heckuva job, Mr. President.

Shockingly, only 18,000 jobs were created in December, according to the monthly U.S. Department of Labor report released today—and the private-sector actually lost 13,000 jobs. Some 150,000 jobs need to be created a month just to accommodate new entrants into the labor force, and economists had predicted around 70,000 new jobs last month.

The U.S. mortgage crisis now is reverberating big time in construction jobs, with the Labor Department’s household survey finding a 49,000 drop in employment in construction. With home owners unable to tap into second mortgages and housing prices falling, consumer spending slowed this holiday season, and retailers cut 24,000 workers in the seasonally adjusted estimate. Manufacturing continues to struggle, losing 31,000 jobs last month.

As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says about the jobs data: It’s especially disheartening that good, middle-class supporting jobs in manufacturing and construction were cut last month, continuing a disturbing trend.

It is astonishing that President Bush and his advisers won’t take their heads out of the sand long enough to realize our economy faces serious threats that need immediate action. This latest economic data is the more visible aspect of trends that have been occurring nearly unnoticed in recent years: the widening income gap and the increasingly besieged middle class. This growing economic imbalance slices many ways, one of which is illustrated by soaring CEO pay. In 1980, CEO pay was 42 times that of the average blue-collar workers’ pay. By 2006, CEO pay was 364 times the same workers’ pay—the largest gap in the world.

Mainstream economists have been dancing around the R word for months now. Maybe it’s time to spell it out: Recession.

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