us unemployment

Key numbers

Employment in retail trade declined by 67,000 in December and by 522,000 for all of 2008. More than half of the losses in 2008 occurred in the last 4 months of the year.
In December, employment decreased in automobile dealerships (-22,000), furniture and home furnishing stores (-8,000), and electronics and appliance stores (-5,000). Whole-
sale trade employment fell by 30,000 over the month and by 164,000 in 2008.

Elsewhere in the service-providing sector, employment in transportation and ware-housing declined by 24,000 in December, with losses in truck transportation (-16,000)
and air transportation (-4,000). The information industry lost 20,000 jobs over the month. Food services employment continued to trend downward (-20,000) and has de-creased by 104,000 since its recent peak in June 2008. Employment in financial activities edged down in December and fell by 148,000 in 2008.

Health care employment continued to grow in December (32,000), with over-the-month job gains in ambulatory services (14,000) and hospitals (12,000). In 2008, health care added 372,000 jobs.


http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm