The U.S. February 2009 unemployment rate has jumped to 8.1% the highest in 26 years, compared to 4.8% in February 2008. In January 2009 the U.S. economy lost 655,000 jobs and an additional 681,000 jobs in December 2008.

Companies around the world are continuing to cut jobs. WPP, the world’s second largest marketing company, announced today it is aiming to cut 2% of its global workforce, or by about 2,000 jobs, by the end of 2009.

The picture is also much worse, worker hours are being scaled back and workers are forced to work part-time. 8.6 million people in February worked part-time when in fact they wanted to work full-time but could not find a job. If these figures and discouraged worker figures were accounted, the true unemployment rate would have been closer to 15% in February, which would have been the highest ever.