Unemployment reaches 15
year high

DEDHAM (FOX25, myfoxboston) - Grim news for the struggling economy, the nation's unemployment rate has reached a 30 year high.

Watch Shirley Chan's report to the left.

The nation lost nearly 600,000 jobs last month, the worst showing in a third of a century, as a vicious cycle of cutbacks by consumers forced ever more layoffs by beleaguered employers. The unemployment rate catapulted to 7.6 percent, the highest in 16 years, and seemed headed for double digits.

Some 3.6 million positions have disappeared so far in the deepening downturn, which now ranks as the biggest job destroyer in the post-World War II period and has raised pressure on President Barack Obama and Congress to agree quickly on a huge economic stimulus plan to stop the hemorrhaging.