US Unemployment Rate Climbs up to 7.2%

US unemployment rate in December jumped from 6.8% to 7.2%, according to the Statistics of the US Bureau of Labor, Department of Labor. Payroll employment fell by 524,000 during the month and by 1.9 million during the last four months of 2008.Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has grown by 3.6 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.3 percentage...

U.K. Consumer Confidence Declined in December

U.K. consumer confidence fell to the lowest since at least 2004 in December as the recession deepened and unemployment rose, based on Nationwide Building Society. An index of sentiment fell four points from a month earlier to 47, the worst since the survey began four years ago. The reading, taken from a survey conducted between Nov. 17 and Dec. 14, compares with 84 points a year earlier.The Bank of...

Obama Said to Push for Tax Cuts in U.S. Stimulus Plan

President-elect Barack Obama is pushing for tax cuts amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars in a stimulus package he’s asking Congress to pass within the next several weeks, a transition official and a Democratic aide say. Obama is asking that tax cuts make up 40 percent of a stimulus package, the officials say. The measure may be worth as much as $775 billion, meaning tax cuts may constitute...