Business: An Unemployment Wallop

As the recession hits, the long gray jobless lines begin to form

From the moment economists first began warning six months ago that the Administration's inflation-fighting tactic of pushing up interest rates would bring on a recession, Jimmy Carter has been countering with calm assurances that any downturn would be "mild and brief." All winter long it seemed as if he might be right. Unemployment, a major indication of economic health, hovered steadily at an unsatisfactory but acceptable 6% of the labor force.

By last week it looked as if the President's promises of a...