US report to show employment market has worsened

Washington: The US Labor Department will release a report on Friday expected to show the employment market turned worse in December.

According to economists' forecasts, the unemployment rate is expected to jump from 6.7 per cent in November to 7 per cent in December.

Economists forecast that employers cut another 550,000 jobs last month.

That would bring the net number of jobs lost for all of 2008 to 2.46 million.