Job cuts announced by US employers almost quadrupled in December from a year earlier, paced by declines at financial firms, chemical makers and retailers as the recession rippled through the economy.

Firing announcements rose 275 percent last month from December 2007, to 166,348, Chicago-based Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc said yesterday. For all of 2008, employers announced 1.22 million job cuts, the most in five years.

The economy is caught in a self-perpetuating cycle of rising job losses and declines in consumer spending that threatens to extend and deepen the economic slump this year. President-elect Barack Obama has said his top priority after taking office will be to pass a stimulus package that will save or create three million jobs.