ARI SHAPIRO, host:
NPR's business news starts with unemployment above seven percent.
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SHAPIRO: This morning, the government released its closely watched monthly unemployment report, and it says employers slashed 524,000 jobs from their payrolls in December. That covers nearly every industry. It's the 12th straight month of declines. All told in 2008, more than two and a half million jobs were cut from payrolls, and unemployment now stands at 7.2 percent.