2.1 million-plus workers laid off in 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of layoffs involving 50 or more workers jumped by one-third last year, and the pace of large job cuts appears to have quickened in the first month of 2009.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that 21,137 mass layoffs took place last year, up from 15,493 in 2007. That’s the highest annual total since 2001, the last time the economy was in recession, and the second-highest since the department began tracking mass layoffs in 1995.

More than 2.1 million workers were fired as a result of last year’s mass layoffs, the department said.

Large corporations continued to hemorrhage jobs Wednesday, as Boeing Co. said it would cut 5,500 positions, on top of 4,500 layoffs announced earlier this month. Airlines are ordering fewer planes as air travel declines because of the global economic slowdown.

IBM Corp., meanwhile, has been cutting thousands of jobs in its sales, software and hardware divisions, without announcing specific numbers.

Home Depot Inc., Pfizer Inc. and General Motors Corp. also have announced thousands of job cuts this week.

So far, companies have announced nearly 125,000 job cuts in January, according to an Associated Press tally.

“The pervasiveness and sheer depth of the current recession means there are few industries, regions or people that can escape the pain,” economists for Wachovia Corp. said in a research note Monday.

President Barack Obama sought to use the mounting employment losses to ramp up support for his $819 billion economic stimulus package, which the House passed Wednesday.

“These businesses that are shedding jobs to stay afloat — they cannot afford inaction or delay,” Obama said Wednesday. “The workers who are returning home to tell their husbands and wives and children that they no longer have a job, and all those who live in fear that theirs will be the next job cut, they need help now.”

Illustrating the worldwide pain being felt during the recession, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday the global economy will grow by only 0.5 percent this year, the slowest since World War II and a sharp reduction from its projection of 2.2 percent growth in November.

The world economy is hamstrung by potential credit losses of $2.2 trillion stemming from U.S. mortgages and other loans, the IMF said.

“A sustained economic recovery will not be possible until the financial sector’s functionality is restored and credit makers are unclogged,” the IMF said.

The Labor Department said that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, mass layoffs did drop slightly in December, to 2,275 from 2,328 in November. Mass layoffs are job cuts of 50 or more by a single employer.

But on a nonseasonally adjusted basis, mass layoffs soared in December to 3,377, up from 2,167 a year earlier, costing 351,305 people their jobs. The government seasonally adjusts many economic indicators to smooth out fluctuations resulting from weather changes, holidays and other predictable factors.

Twelve industries reported record high levels of job losses, the Labor Department said, including construction, mining, manufacturing, transportation services and financial services.

Auto workers were particularly hard-hit in December, with more than 32,000 layoffs reported by auto companies and parts makers, the department said.

GM and Chrysler LLC both shut many of their plants for extended periods in December, sending workers temporarily to the unemployment rolls.