17,000 jobs lost in January. Wow:

The economy lost 17,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reported on Friday, an unexpected decline that marks the most striking evidence yet that the United States may be slipping into a recession.

But don’t let that bad news get you down. Exxon has set another record profit year:

Exxon Mobil delivered its strongest performance ever last year, earning a record $40.6 billion in net income because of surging oil prices, the company said Friday.

The figure, a 3 percent increase from the previous year, exceeded the company’s own record for profits at an American corporation, set in 2006, and is nearly twice what it earned in 2003.

So when your sitting at home wondering how to pay the bills, you can have a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that Exxon is getting rich off the gas you need to burn while job hunting. God bless the Bush economy!!