In the surest sign yet that the U.S. economy is slipping into recession, if it hasn't already, the Labor Department reported on February 1 that for the first time in four years the economy failed to add new jobs and actually lost a total of 17,000 jobs. Even economists who had been warning that the coming recession would be decidedly softer and shorter-lived in comparison with recent recessions are now forecasting a sharp downturn in economic output and consumer spending in 2008 in light of these new, discouraging figures.

Jared Bernstein, senior economist at Washington's Economic Policy Institute, observed, "This is the clearest signal yet that the job market is either in or teetering on a recession."

Other harbingers of a weakening job market include the facts that businesses are reducing the numbers of hours employees work and that salaries have fallen in recent months as hourly wages have failed to keep pace with the rate of inflation.

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