The Labor Department releases a new report Friday that's expected to show the employment market deteriorated in November at an alarming clip as the deepening recession engulfed the country.

After bolting to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October, the unemployment rate likely climbed to 6.8 percent last month, according to economists' forecasts. If they are right, that would mark the worst showing in 15 years.

Skittish employers, which have slashed 1.2 million jobs this year alone, probably axed another 320,000 last month, economists forecast. If that estimate is correct, it would represent the deepest cut to monthly payrolls since October 2001, when the economy was suffering through a recession following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with sagging appetites from customers in the United States as well as in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles.

The carnage — including the worst financial crisis since the 1930s — is hitting a wide range of companies.

Just in recent days, household names like AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. announced layoffs.

Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. will return Friday to Capitol Hill to make a pitch to lawmakers for the second straight day for as much as $34 billion in emergency aid.

Worn-out consumers battered by job losses, shrinking nest eggs and tanking home values have retrenched, throwing the economy into a tailspin. As the unemployment rate continues to move higher, consumers will burrow further, dragging the economy down even more, a vicious circle that Washington policymakers are trying to break.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected ratchet down a key interest rate — now near a historic low of 1 percent — by as much as a half-percentage point on Dec. 16 in a bid to breath life into the moribund economy. Bernanke is exploring other economic revival options and wants the government to step up efforts to curb home foreclosures.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the overseer of a $700 billion financial bailout program, is weighing new initiatives, too, even as his remaining days in office are numbered.

President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over his first two years in office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed to have a package ready on Inauguration Day for Obama's signature. The measure, which could total $500 billion, would bankroll big public works projects to create jobs, provide aid to states to help with Medicaid costs and provide money toward renewable energy development.

The United States tipped into recession last December, a panel of experts declared earlier this week, confirming what many Americans already thought.

At 12 months and counting, the recession is longer than the 10-month average length of recessions since World War II. The record for the longest recession in the postwar period is 16 months, which was reached in the 1973-75 and 1981-82 downturns. The current recession might end up matching that or setting a record in terms of duration, analysts say.

The 1981-82 recession was the worst in terms of unemployment since the Great Depression. The jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982, just as the recession ended, before inching down.

Given the current woes, the jobless rate could rise to as high as 8.5 percent by the end of next year, some analysts predict. Projections, however, have to be taken with a grain of salt because all of the uncertainties plaguing the economy. Still, the unemployment rate often peaks after a recession has ended. That's because companies are reluctant to ramp up hiring until they feel certain the recovery has staying power.

Well, if you needed an official stamp of disapproval on the U.S. economy, it came Monday: the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private group charged by the government with determining America's economic cycles, said the country has been in a recession since December 2007.

The NBER uses a mix of economic statistics to decide when downturns begin and end, which means its rulings come after the fact. Judging by recent events in the financial markets, the recession call is a good one, but the widely accepted definition of two consecutive quarters of economic contraction will not come before the end of the year, unless earlier numbers are sharply revised.

Third-quarter gross domestic fell 0.3%, following a 2.8% increase in the second quarter.

New data on Monday did not point to happier days being here again. The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity fell to 36.2 in November from 38.9 in October. The drop brings the index to its weakest point since 1982, when the United States was also in a recession. Adding insult to injury, the reading was still below Wall Street's already dour 37.0 forecast.

The numbers, along with a sell-off from last week's buying-spree, led stocks to tumble on Monday, while the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 2.83% from 2.96%.

The ISM also reported new orders also fell to the lowest since 1980, down to 27.9 in November from 32.2 in October. A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the sector.

In another sign that inflationary pressures are ebbing fast, the prices paid subcomponent fell to its lowest level since 1949, dropping to 25.5 in November from 37.0 in October. The prices paid index peaked this year at 91.5 in June.

Asian stocks plunged deeper into the red Tuesday, as confirmation of a U.S. recession and further falls in commodity prices dealt blows to exporters and oil producers. Financials also slid on some re-emerging signs of heightened borrowing costs. The surging yen continued to erode Japanese companies' overseas earnings.

Japan's Nikkei 225 sank 5.0% to 7,978.75 points in midafternoon trading, following the lead of the Dow Jones industrial average, which shed 679.95 points, or 7.7%, to 8,149.09 Monday. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared that a U.S. recession started in December 2007. Japanese financials suffered steep losses, as Mizuho Financial Group (nyse: MFG - news - people ) tumbled 7.6%, Sumitomo Mitsui (other-otc: SMFJY - news - people ) lost 6.6% and Mitsubishi UFJ (nyse: MTU - news - people ) slid 6.7%. Nomura Holdings (nyse: NMR - news - people ), which said it aims to reel in 500.0 billion yen ($5.4 billion) in pretax profit and 70.0 billion yen ($749.3 million) in investment banking profit in 2010, fell 7.2%.

Hitachi (nyse: HIT - news - people ) lost 3.5%, after the company and Intel Corporation (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) jointly announced plans to release solid-state drives, high-end memory storage drives that have no moving parts, by early 2010.

Hurting exporters, the yen strengthened further against the dollar, briefly reaching below 93 yen on the dollar, a five-week low in early trade. Steelmaker JFE Holdings (other-otc: JFEEF - news - people ) plunged 8.6%. Honda Motor (nyse: HMC - news - people ) fell 6.8%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 4.8%, to 13,427.95, on steep slides in financials and refiners. The three-month Hibor, or interbank lending rate, climbed to 2.14% from 2.04%. HSBC (nyse: HBC - news - people )tumbled 5.8%, amid reports that the bank plans to raise mortgage rates. Bank of East Asia (other-otc: BKEAY - news - people ) skidded 6.0%. CITIC Pacific (other-otc: CTPCY - news - people ) requested a suspension of trading without giving a reason, after soaring over 15% Monday. In November, the firm had to be bailed out by its state-owned parent company after huge losses from unauthorized forex trading (See "CITIC Pacific's $1.5 Billion Bailout: The Tarnish Remains").

PetroChina (nyse: PTR - news - people ) lost 7.0%, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec (nyse: SNP - news - people ), shed 6.2% and China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, slid 6.0%. In a turnaround from last week, Air China (other-otc: AIRYY - news - people ) dropped 6.0%, as parent companies of its peers China Eastern Airlines (nyse: CEA - news - people ) and China Southern Airlines (nyse: ZNH - news - people ) have received or look likely to receive government aid due to steep fuel hedging losses.

China Unicom (nyse: CHU - news - people ), which last week completed its merger with China Netcom (nyse: CN - news - people ) as part of Beijing's telecom restructuring, sank 5.6%.

Who's hiring when everyone else is firing?

In Pictures: Top 10 Recession-Proof Jobs

When Forbes first looked at the most recession-proof jobs in July, there were 8.8 million Americans unemployed. As of October, that number had risen to 10.1 million and looks set to rise further.

Among the 500 largest U.S. public companies alone, Forbes has totted up almost 90,000 layoffs since Nov. 1 (see our Layoff Tracker).

But there are still opportunities, the most abundant being in sales, customer support and accounting, according to the latest data from Jobfox.com, a job board founded by the creator of CareerBuilder.com. These jobs rank highest on a list of most recession-proof.

In Pictures: Top 10 Most Recession-Proof Jobs

"Skilled professionals remain in demand," said Rob McGovern, chief executive of McLean, Va.-based Jobfox.com.

To determine its ranking of its 25 most recession-proof jobs, Jobfox collected a list of more than 4,000 job openings in a 120-day period ended Oct. 28. The report also includes information about current median salary ranges and desired median salary ranges as defined by a random sample of job candidates.

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Sales and business development representatives top the list. In tough economic times, it's important for companies to develop the business rather than cower into a corner. The job, which is largely based on commission, pays in a salary range of $55,000 to $65,000 a year.

If peddling goods or services isn't your strong suit, try the frustration end of the business. The holiday shopping season yields a torrent of calls to businesses from customers wanting either information or a refund. Account and customer-support jobs rank No. 2 on the list. The job pays in a range of $25,000 to $35,000.

Japan - world's No. 2 economy - in recession

TOKYO (CNN) -- Japan, the world's second-largest economy, is in a recession, government officials announced Monday.

Japan's Cabinet Office confirmed that its economy fell another 0.1% in its third quarter, following a 0.3% drop in the second quarter.

The country's gross domestic product - second to that of the United States - has fallen by 0.4% this year.

Stocks on the Nikkei were trading about 1% higher in Monday morning trading.

Major indexes around the globe have plummeted over the last two months. The Russian stock market has lost 65.5% of its value since the start of the year. Stocks in Japan and the United States have been equally hard hit, falling 42% and 33%, respectively.

In Europe, the pain has been particularly acute. The European Union on Friday officially declared that the 15-nation group had entered into a recession, with its gross domestic product declining 0.2% for the second straight quarter.

Japan's recession announcement was not unexpected. Part of the problem is the strong yen, which skyrocketed in recent weeks as turmoil in the world's financial markets and concerns about a global recession drove investors away from high-yielding currencies such as the euro and the pound. As a result, lower-yielding currencies like the dollar and the yen surged in value because they are considered by many investors to be a safe-haven.

Since Japan is such a big exporter of goods, a more robust yen hurts profits for Japanese firms as sales from abroad get translated back into yen. The more that the yen has climbed, the worse Japan's stock market has performed, which has resulted in a ripple effect on European and U.S. exchanges.

Like many medical centers in Asia, Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital had big expectations for a global trend known as medical tourism. Administrators were especially eager to attract more patients from the U.S. (BusinessWeek.com, 3/17/08) keen on saving money by having hip replacements, cosmetic surgery, and other operations overseas. For years, some of Asia's premier hospitals have been popular destinations for U.S. patients who either lack health insurance or can't get coverage for certain procedures. And recently there have been signs that insurance companies might start actively encouraging this trend to save on costs.

But Bumrungrad has been hit by a double whammy this year. First came the political unrest in Thailand, with anti-government protesters taking to the streets of Bangkok and constant rumors of a military coup. The prospect of instability seems to have discouraged would-be patients from making the trip. Even more worrisome for Bumrungrad management, the financial crisis has suddenly made the cost of travel to Thailand from the U.S. more of a stretch for many Americans who might have considered choosing the Bangkok hospital in the past. "We are not predicting robust growth," concedes an understated Curtis J. Schroeder, chief executive of Bumrungrad, who says the hospital will take the occasion to refurbish its rooms, as many hospital beds are empty.

Analysts are more direct: DBS Vickers Securities predicts earnings will fall 9.2% this year and 20.9% in 2009. "We foresee the number of international and local patients to be scant," write the Singapore-based bank's analysts. "Patients [will] delay unnecessary or nonemergency treatments (i.e. plastic surgery, hip/knee replacement, etc.) and decrease length of stay, as the financial turmoil has caused significant cutback on expenses."

Grim Outlook

With the financial crisis turning into a global recession, the outlook across Asia's medical tourism industry is grim. From Thailand to Singapore to India, hospitals that had been counting on a big influx (BusinessWeek, 3/13/08) of overseas patients are scaling back expectations. Those counting on large numbers of Americans, like Bumrungrad, are especially at risk, says Ruben Toral, CEO of Mednet Asia, a Manila-based consulting firm specializing in medical tourism. "You are going to see U.S. patients take a very, very defensive position," he says.

The 15-nation region that uses the euro has met the technical definition, contracting in consecutive quarters for the first time in its brief history.

Government data confirmed what observers were hoping might, by some fortuitous circumstance, be avoided on Friday: the euro zone has officially entered its first-ever recession. The rub is that the contraction is expected to intensify in the near term.

Gross domestic product for the 15 nations that use the euro shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter, mirroring the 0.2% negative growth booked in the second quarter, technically putting the region into recession. The data come ahead of a G20 meeting in Washington, in which leaders of advanced nations will meet with their emerging market counterparts to discuss ways to stem the global financial crisis.

European heads of state are now scrambling to keep their economies from sliding even more steeply. Global Insight economist Howard Archer said the latest data and survey evidence indicated that the euro zone would probably see a sharper fall in GDP in the current quarter than in the third quarter. He added that "it will take time for sharply lower oil prices, the retreat of the euro, lower interest rates and fiscal stimulus in a number of countries to generate recovery."

Other economic data out from Europe on Friday showed that Italy had joined Germany in entering recession, while Spain's output had contracted and the Netherlands' was stagnating. One surprise was that France had managed to post a slight uptick in growth in the latest quarter, escaping a technical recession by a sliver. (See "Recession Misses France, Hits Italy.")

The weak data lend support to the view that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates further, after having trimmed by 50 basis points last Thursday, to take them to a two-year low of 3.25%. Many economists expect the central bank to cut by another 50 basis points in December and to ease to 2.0% by the end of the second quarter of 2009.

Europe's leading shares were in positive territory in late morning trading on Friday, tracking a strong rally on Wall Street Thursday and higher trading in Asia. But the euro fell against the dollar, buying $1.269, down from $1.2784 late Thursday in New York.

The most popular European government bond, the German bund, was being ditched by traders in droves on Friday. Yields on all major classes of debt securities, which move inversely with their prices, were moving higher. The two-year bund yielded 2.29%, up from 2.26% on Thursday, while the 10-year yielded 3.75%, up from 3.71%.

Demand for the game console is still strong despite the down economy.