Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    WASHINGTON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Ignoring the Obama administration's huge economic stimulus package, multibillion-dollar bailout program for the nation's troubled banks and ambitious rescue plan to stem home foreclosures, employers in the United States continued to axe jobs in February, pushing the unemployment rate up to the highest level not seen in more than 25 years.

    With Americans being clobbered by waves of layoffs unlikely to ease in the coming months, it seems certain that the world's largest economy is sinking into a deeper recession.

Job seekers line up to enter the job fair at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Manhattan, New York, the United States, March 5, 2009. The job website Monster.com started its series of job fairs "Keep America Working Tour 2009" in New York on Thursday with more than 3,700 job hunters converging in search of employment. The unemployment rate of New York city has soared to 7.4% according to statistics due to the financial turmoil.(Xinhua/Gu Xinrong) Photo Gallery>>>

    

    JOBS VANISH, UNEMPLOYMENT RATE JUMPS

    Government data released Friday showed that the nation's unemployment rate jumped from 7.6 percent in January to 8.1 percent, the highest level since late 1983, as employers slashed 651,000 jobs in February, the third month in a row that job losses topped 600,000.

    The economy lost 681,000 jobs, the most since October 1949, in December 2008 and another 655,000 in January.

    Since December 2007 when the economy entered a recession, payroll employment has declined by 4.4 million jobs, with more than half occurring in the last 4 months.

    "In February, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors," the Labor Department said while releasing the data.

    Even in the best-case scenario that the administration's relief efforts work and the recession ends later in 2009, some economists say, the nation's unemployment rate is expected to keep climbing.

    They predict that the unemployment rate could hit 10 percent by year-end and peak at 11 percent or higher by the middle of 2010.

    The job market may not get back to normal, meaning a 5 percent unemployment rate, until 2013, they believe.