The nation’s employers eliminated 17,000 jobs in January, the government reported Friday, the first decline in the work force in more than four years, and the strongest signal yet that the United States may be in the early stages of a recession.
Politically, the job figures were particularly troubling for the Republican Party and President Bush, who had just this week responded to doubts about the economy by noting in his State of the Union address a 52-month streak of uninterrupted job growth. That streak ended last month.
The broad weakness in the job market, which affected many sectors, shows how the collapse of the housing bubble is rippling through the rest of the economy and suggests the likelihood of more pain for millions of American families in the months ahead from job losses, lower real wages and fewer working hours.
Citing the new jobs report, Mr. Bush — who was in Kansas City, Mo., on the third day of a trip that also took him to California, Nevada and Colorado — acknowledged that it provided “some troubling signs” that the economy was weakening.
By LOUIS UCHITELLE and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
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