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WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pleaded Thursday for more government action to relieve the foreclosure crisis and break a vicious round of years in which the housing meltdown is plunging the country deeper into recession.

Beaten-down shoppers, meanwhile, handed retailers their worst month in at least 39 years. And the number of the many the crowd drawing jobless benefits be conformable to a 26-year high, with the November employment figures due out today likely to explain more reaching far down job cuts.

“We are probably at the absolute master of the recession right now,” said Mark Vitner, economist at Wachovia.

With soaring foreclosures feeding the country’s economic woes, Bernanke called onward the government to ratchet up efforts to help people at jeopardy of loss their homes.

Despite steps already taken to try to facility the crisis, foreclosures remain “too high,” hurting homeowners, lenders and the broader economy, Bernanke told a Fed conference here on housing finance.

“More needs to be done,” he declared.

Lenders appear in continuance track to initiate 2.25 million foreclosures this year, up from an average annual step of less than 1 the great body of the people near the front of the crisis, he said.

“Weakness in the saddle-cloth emporium has proved a weighty drag on overall housekeeping action,” Bernanke said. “Steps that stabilize the horse-cloth emporium will help stabilize the economy as well.”

The fallout is forcing consumers to hibernate, and retailers have suffered the consequences.

Seattle-based department store-chain Nordstrom saw same-store sales decline 15.9 percent, grant that that was less than some analysts estimated.

Issaquah-based Costco Wholesale, usually a strong performer, reported a 5 percent decline, larger than the 2.4 percent drop analysts expected. Excluding the effect of lower gas prices and currency fluctuations, the wholesale club operator would have posted a 3 percent sales gain.

Zumiez, every Everett sports-apparel retailer, reported Wednesday that same-store sales for November fell 15 percent.