Dec. 28--There was one major direction that the business news took in 2008. Down.

The economy fell into recession. Stocks plummeted. Investment banks failed. Commercial banks went bust. Housing had been falling in value for two years, but it managed to fall further.

There was one big story that trended upward. That was unemployment. And growing? Federal government bailouts. By year's end, the government had stakes in insurance giant AIG, a handful of banks and lawmakers jumped into the auto industry, too. And economists declared that the nation had been in a recession since December 2007.

Confusing, new, different -- 2008 was all of the above. Here are some of the memorable business stories of the year and a look ahead to what might be coming in 2009:

Unemployment Think of the 80,000 Floridians who lost their jobs in the construction industry during 2008 this way: The largest employer in Broward County, the school system, has only half that many people.

And construction job losses were only a third of the jobs lost overall. In Florida, the number of jobs has declined by 206,900 in the year ended in November. The impact of rising unemployment -- the 7.3 percent rate statewide in November was the highest in 15 years -- radiated from the housing bust into mortgage finance, business services and beyond.

What's ahead: Non-government economists predict the recession for Florida will last throughout 2009 and into the first half of 2010. Job losses could continue even after the economy turns upward. "We hope to have improvement in the second half of 2009 and to resume normal growth levels in the 2010-2011 time period," said Rebecca Rust, economist with the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

Credit crisis Before March, the nation had investment banks that were content to be investment banks. But in a matter of days, Bear Stearns failed. It was both a trigger and a signal that the credit crisis could claim the powerful -- and the rest of us.

Washington Mutual, one of the nation's largest savings and loans and a significant mortgage lender in Florida, failed in September. Its assets were sold to JP Morgan Chase & Co. for $1.9 billion. Chase took over Bear, Stearns, as well.

Wachovia rushed into a merger with Wells Fargo. Then it posted one of the largest losses a bank had ever posted in one quarter, $23.9 billion.

Lehman Bros. went bankrupt -- the largest corporate bankruptcy in history. Merrill Lynch merged with Bank of America. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley become commercial banks.

And throughout, the sense of wariness grew.

Lenders tightened their standards, raising down payments, cutting off home equity lines of credit and reducing the credit available on credit cards as the year progressed. That, in turn, hurt housing and car sales and student loans and anything that required financing. AutoNation Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Mike Jackson said in November the "credit crisis escalated to a credit panic in September, a credit freeze ensued, which broke consumer confidence which has been under pressure throughout the year." AutoNation reported a $1.41 billion loss in the third quarter.