WASHINGTON — Mass layoffs involving 50 or more workers rose sharply last year, and big job cuts appear to be accelerating in 2009 at a furious pace.

Starbucks, Boeing, Pfizer, Home Depot and other U.S. corporate titans have announced tens of thousands of job cuts this week alone.

The economy is likely to continue to shed jobs for the rest of this year, even if an economic stimulus bill pushed by President Obama is approved, economists said.

The Labor Department reported yesterday that 21,137 mass layoffs took place last year, up from 15,493 in 2007. That's the highest annual total since 2001, the last time the economy was in recession, and the second-highest since the department began tracking mass layoffs in 1995.

More than 2.1 million workers were fired last year, the department said.

Large firms continued to cut jobs yesterday, as Boeing Co. said it would cut 5,500 positions, on top of 4,500 layoffs announced earlier this month. Airlines are ordering fewer planes as air travel declines because of the global economic slowdown.

Starbucks Corp., the Seattle-based company that turned coffee into a high-priced daily indulgence, said yesterday it will eliminate about 6,700 jobs because of the difficult economy.

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL division said yesterday it is cutting up to 700 jobs, or about 10 percent of the online unit's workforce. IBM Corp. has cut thousands of jobs in its sales, software and hardware divisions in the past week, without announcing specific numbers.

Home Depot Inc., Pfizer Inc. and General Motors Corp. also have announced plans to lay off thousands of workers this week. Companies have announced more than 125,000 layoffs in January, according to an Associated Press tally.

The recession, which began in December 2007, likely will result in greater job losses than any downturn since the late 1950s, said Adam York, an analyst at Wachovia Corp.

Total employment will drop by 3.5 percent by the end of this year, a sharper decline than the 3.1 percent fall that took place during the steep 1981-1982 recession, York said. Employers cut 2.6 million jobs last year and will likely eliminate more than 2 million this year, he said.

One indication job cuts will continue is that some companies this week have said they will lay off workers without providing additional details.

Government contractor Halliburton Co. said it will reduce its workforce, but didn't provide more information. And Target Corp. said it will cut 500 workers later this year when it closes a distribution center.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve acknowledged yesterday the economy is continuing to deteriorate and signaled it would use unconventional tools, such as buying longer-term Treasury securities, to cushion the fallout.

The Fed also kept the key interest rate it controls at nearly zero and said it would remain at that level for "some time."