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December's jobless figures hit home with a sickening thud. Now, comes January's report.

Experts say December was only the beginning. With the holidays behind us, the economy appeared to be sliding deeper into recession, along with additional layoffs in the months ahead.

In December, 589,000 workers filed new jobless claims nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Official confirmation that unemployment could get worse arrived Friday in a Labor Department report.

Recession-battered employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January, the most since the end of 1974, and catapulted the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. Economic prognosticators had expected joblessness to rise only to 7.5 percent.

The grim figures were further proof that the nation's job climate is deteriorating at an alarming clip, with no end in sight.

Is it any wonder, with major corporations - from Home Depot and Sprint Nextel to Caterpillar and Starbucks - announcing increasing numbers of store and plant closings and layoffs last month.

Indications of the national malaise were not hard to find in the Attleboro area, either, where Shaw's Supermarkets and Circuit City announced store closings.

Local manufacturers also suffered with Innovative Spinal Technologies, which once employed up to 100 people at its Mansfield medical device plant, shutting down.

The Macy's department store chain announced plans to eliminate 7,000 jobs nationwide, but said it would open a district office in Attleboro.

Texas Instruments successor Sensata Technologies, hard-hit by major contractions in the housing and automobile industries, announced an extended year-end closing period and planned a combination of plant and office shutdowns and scheduled time off for employees this month totaling 10 days.

Not every large corporation was reporting bleak profits. Covidien, the worldwide health care company whose U.S. headquarters is located in Mansfield, said it is maintaining its local work force and expanding into another building.

"While no company is completely immune to the economic cycles and we are no exception, our product diversity can be a benefit, despite the recent marketplace uncertainties," said Covidien VP for public affairs Bruce Farmer.

But for anyone already looking for work, continued news about layoffs and closings is like a chronic ache. Michelle Haley of Mansfield is an independent single mom with expertise in interior design who's tackled everything from running a contractor's office to helping on a roofing job.

But that confidence was shaken in December, when she lost her job in the construction business, a victim of the worsening recession.

Like the steadily growing number of jobless people visiting the Massachusetts Career Center on Mechanic Street in Attleboro, Haley is suddenly having to balance the responsibilities of raising two teenagers with the task of looking for a new job and the worry of bills and other responsibilities.

"It's a very humbling experience," said Haley, 52, who's been taking a computer course at the career center to update her skills for a new job.

She spends hours each day combing job listings and networking.

"My magic wand's not working," she said.

Diane Moran of Attleboro, an unemployed office worker, is also feeling the pressure.

Laid off from her last job a year ago, Moran says it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"When I go to interviews, I feel overwhelmed," she said, noting one job for which she applied had more than 300 applicants.

Nevertheless, Moran continues to look for jobs and is gamely learning new computer skills like Excel and Powerpoint, which she hopes will be helpful in a new job.

Moran and Haley, who say they're focusing on being positive, are nonetheless typical of a worrisome trend not only in the Attleboro area but around the nation and the world: With almost every kind of commerce in decline, the rolls of unemployed are growing - and growing fast.

No one knows that better than Paul Jasmin, director of the Attleboro Career Center, which processes new unemployment claims and works to match workers with available jobs.

Across 10 communities in the Attleboro area, more than 1,400 people lost jobs in December, alone, the most recent local figures available. Between July and last month, the number of visitors to the Attleboro Center ballooned from 986 to 1,738.

"People are panicky, sometimes angry and frustrated, and you can't blame them," said Jasmin, who added that his small staff does its best to blend compassion with educational and job-finding services for out-of-work residents.

"For a lot of people, it's 'I am what I do.' So when that job is suddenly gone, it can do a lot to your feeling of self worth," he said.

Meanwhile, numbers of companies and non-profits are listing fewer job openings with the Career Center, Jasmin said.

And some are beginning to ask about the state's "job sharing" program, which lets two employees share a single job with unemployment benefits making up the difference in pay.

Those who have their fingers on the pulse of the economy say things could get much worse.

"My sense is that we aren't halfway through this," said Fred Breimyer, regional economist for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

As a member of the New England Economic Partnership, Breimyer signed on to a prediction last fall that many people considered much too pessimistic. The NEEP's economic prediction for 2009 was for a "significant recession" with hefty job losses and declining consumer confidence leading to yet more job losses.

The partnership glumly predicted that job growth would not resume in Massachusetts until the middle of 2010.

In the meantime, the NEEP forecast a loss of about 135,000 jobs, or 4.1 percent of the state's total. That's a little more than half of the job losses in the 2001 recession.

So far, various measurements seem to echo Breimyer's thoughts.

Including January's bumper crop of jobless claims, the recession has now claimed an estimated 3.6 million jobs since it officially began in December 2007.

And the nation's real gross domestic product - the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the United States - decreased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The decrease reflected reductions in exports, personal consumption, equipment and software, and residential construction. Imports also declined.

But while the current trend may seem problematic enough, some economists worry about "structural" changes that may be taking place in the economy that could possibly abolish millions of jobs, while creating far fewer.

"Beyond the expansion of layoffs that began in October or November, we began seeing a non-hiring trend that began back in August," said Raymond Torto, an economist with CB Richard Ellis. "The question is, when the recession ends, will there be a job to go to?"

Many experts say that recessions often serve as corrections to economic excesses, forcing business and government leaders to reassess staffing practices and programs.

Sometimes jobs previously considered indispensable to operating a business turn out to be nonessential when an agency or business manages to get by without them.

Daniel Georgiana, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, said major changes, including an increase in savings and a reduction in the amount of debt, will be needed to get the economy back on track.

The flow of credit back also needs to return to normal, he said.

In the meantime, people and businesses will do the best they can.

So will Paul, a middle-age retail supervisor, who after many years in the job market is experiencing his first extended layoff.

As he looked through potential job openings at the Attleboro Career Center, he said it's taking some getting used to.

"At first, you say it's not so bad. I've got some time to myself," said Paul, who asked that his last name not be published. "After a while, though, you get to where you want to get back into it."

It's a matter of pride and responsibility, Paul said.

After being laid off in August, he got a seasonal job with a parcel delivery service. But that lasted only a couple of weeks.

He now spends three to four hours a day searching through job listings, networking and attending classes at the career center.

Despite ongoing worries about finding a job and paying for groceries, many unemployed workers say they're grateful for the help of the five-member staff at the Attleboro Career Center.

Aside from taking unemployment applications and working to match up applicants with available jobs, Mansfield's Haley said the office staff's compassion and care has given her extra confidence.

"I'm trying to focus on the positive," she said. "The people here have been phenomenal, very professional."