Friday, the Labor Department informed that the United States had lost approximately 600,000 jobs the previous month, adding that the unemployment rate had increased to 7.6 percent, which translates as the highest one in over 16 years.

The job loss registered in January was the worst one ever since the global economic crisis began affecting the United States last year and it also exceeded most forecasts.

Moreover, the figures released by the Labor Department prompted the government to revise the estimates for previous months, as well, in order to add another 400,000 job losses.

Consequently, for December, the government revised the job loss to 577,000, while the initial numbers estimated only 524,000.

The government announced that since the nation had entered a recession in December 2007, it had lost a total number of 3.6 million jobs.

Nevertheless, even given the bleak conditions, Wall Street seemed to be doing well, since Friday at noon, all three major exchanges were up by approximately 2 percent.

In the comments he delivered Friday morning, president Barack Obama said that Washington needed to move to action immediately, urging the Congress to pass the economic stimulus package.

During last month, as well as within the previous ones, employers in almost every industry except health care slashed jobs, with manufacturers having cut a number of 207,000 jobs, which is more than in any year since 1982, while the construction industry eliminated 111,000 jobs.

As for retailers, they reduced their work force by 45,000 jobs.