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Economists in this country were worried when August data showed a shrinkage in the labor force. ABC's Betsy Stark cited the reputation of the jobs report as "the single most important barometer" of economic health. "Right now that barometer is issuing a high alert." She called the data "shockingly bleak." CBS' Anthony Mason (no link) heard "a lot of economists uttering the R-word…the housing slump and the mortgage crisis could take the entire economy down with them." Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender, called defaults in the real estate market "the most severe in modern American history," noted Erin Burnett of CNBC, NBC's sibling financial news channel. Countrywide laid off 12,000 workers, 20% of its entire workforce. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 249 points to 13113.
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