U.S. stocks opened mixed on Friday after a report that the U.S. unemployment rate climbed in December and that the jobs lost total in 2008 was the most since the end of World War II.

The Dow Jones industrial average opened up 0.1 percent. The Standard & Poor 500 index climbed 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq composite index was down 0.03 by 9:33am EST. at the opening trade in U.S. markets.

The U.S. economy lost 524,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent, according to the Labor Department today . Total jobs lost in 2008 were of 2.589 million as the global economic recession deepens.

Unemployment