In February 2008, 63,000 jobs were lost, a five-year record,[118] and in November, over 500,000 jobs were lost, which marked the largest loss of jobs in the United States in 34 years.[119] The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in the last four months of 2008, 1.9 million jobs were lost.[120] By the end of 2008, the U.S. had lost 2.6 million jobs.[121]
To aid with the situation, Bush signed a $170 billion economic stimulus package which was intended to improve the economic situation by sending tax rebate checks to many Americans and providing tax breaks for struggling businesses. The Bush administration pushed for significantly increased regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003,[122] and after two years, the regulations passed the House but died in the Senate. Many Republican senators, as well as influential members of the Bush Administration, feared that the agency created by these regulations would merely be mimicking the private sector's risky practices.[123][124][125] In September 2008, the crisis became much more serious beginning with the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac followed by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and a federal bailout of American International Group for $85 billion.