US unemployment rate up to 9.4% but job losses ease
by Kay Murchie
Figures released today from the US Labor Department show that the US economy shed 345,000 jobs in May, taking the unemployment rate up to a 25-year high of 9.4%.
However, the number of jobs lost were far fewer than expected and follow the 539,000 jobs lost in the previous month.
Service sector industries axed 120,000 jobs in May, while a further 156,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing and 59,000 jobs were lost in construction industries.
Since the onset of the recession at the end of 2007, the US economy has lost six million jobs.
However, today’s information is a comfort to many economists who believe that the US economy is over the worst but many still believe the unemployment rate could reach 10% by the end of the year.
Kurt Karl, the chief US economist at Swiss Re in New York, described the figures as “good news” and said : “At some point, we had to start moving to the 300,000 range; after all, we already laid off an incredible amount of people.”
Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums
Story link: US unemployment rate up to 9.4% but job losses ease
Related financial stories to: US unemployment rate up to 9.4% but job losses ease:
- Unemployment in the UK rising at record pace
- Spain’s unemployment rate spirals to 19.3%
- US unemployment rate at 26-year high
- US unemployment rate tips over 10%
- US unemployment rate hits 26-year high of 9.5%
Next: Rio Tinto adds 10 percent »
Visited 1015 times, 2 so far today
2 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Tags: ease, Economy News, job losses, Labor Department, May, rate, unemployment, US
Obama Provides Federal Stimulus Jobs to Illegal Aliens
Billions of dollars in stimulus aid can now be used by federal contractors to hire illegal workers because of the Obama administration’s cancellation of a requirement that they use the E-Verify system. As unemployment soars in the U.S., taxpayer-funded assistance will be used to hire illegal aliens instead of the 14 million unemployed American citizens.
Let the President hear your voice, join NumbersUSA.com and send him a fax that you are outraged with his continuing to pander to the demands of illegal aliens.
Obama Administration Abandons American Workers, Refuses to Implement E-Verify Requirement
Comment by Paul P. — June 5, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
Be careful save the inflation rate in the right position or we all in big …
Comment by broker — June 8, 2009 @ 7:12 am