Reporting from Washington — The wave of layoffs that pushed unemployment last month to its highest level in more than a quarter of a century is giving American workers a new jolt of anxiety.
Capping a week of steep stock market declines, new fears for the survival of the country's biggest automaker and fresh concern over the banking system, the news Friday that unemployment jumped to 8.1% in February from 7.6% the month before was only the latest sign of continued deterioration in the economy.
"We still haven't hit bottom yet. That's the hard reality," said Diane Swonk, chief economist for Mesirow Financial in Chicago.
February was the third straight month in which more than 650,000 workers lost their jobs, the Labor Department said after revising the job-loss numbers for January and December sharply upward.
Since the recession began at the end of 2007, 4.4 million jobs have been lost, with more than half the losses coming in the last four months.
The layoffs have been pervasive, magnifying their effect on the psyche of consumers and contributing to a downward spiral in their spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the nation's economic activity.
For most of today's workers, who were too young to be in the labor force in 1983, when unemployment last reached its current level, the effects could be long-lasting.
"This is something that will redefine a generation," Swonk said. "There's no escaping that."
That demographic's economic anxiety is unmistakable.
Jay Cooney, a 26-year-old editor for a cable-TV show and an aspiring filmmaker, said nearly all of his friends were stunned by how high unemployment was.
"I'm lucky to have a job, I know that," he said. "My roommate has a college degree and hasn't had full-time work since August. He can't even get a job at Best Buy."
Susan Glogovsky, a 30-something director of design at Carnoustie Sportswear in Irvine, has cut back on her spending after seeing companies in her industry go out of business and several of her friends lose their jobs.
Although her small employer has avoided layoffs, she lost a freelance side job for a private-label apparel company after its primary customer, Mervyns, went out of business.
"Everyone's frightened," she said, describing a big change in her social life.
