Labor Market 'More Bad' In June
The Labor Department
reported a sharp decline in nonfarm payrolls last month and a slight increase in the unemployment rate as the labor market continues to shed jobs during the worst recession in decades.
Employers in the U.S. cut a total of 467,000 jobs in June following losses of 519,000 in April and 322,000 in May. Revisions to prior months resulted in 8,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported, the May total revised
downward from -519,000 and the June data revised
upward from -335,000.
The unemployment rate continued to rise, up from 9.4 percent in May to 9.5 percent in June, however, this was the smallest increase since last September, just prior to the financial market and economic crisis taking a turn for the worse.
In a separate report, new claims for unemployment insurance fell to 614,000 for the week ended June 27 from an upwardly revised 630,000 the week before.
Since the start of the recession in December of 2007, non farm payrolls have declined every month, the total labor market decline now totaling 6.5 million jobs.
By category, June job losses were concentrated in the manufacturing and business services sectors that shed 136,000 and 118,000 positions, respectively, and the decline in manufacturing payrolls included 26,500 fewer jobs in the auto and auto parts industries.
As usual, the education and health care sectors added to the work force, a gain of 14,900 seen in education services and 18,600 more workers now in the health care and social assistance.
Government payrolls posted their second consecutive decline, down 52,000 in June after a drop of 10,000 in May, much of this change resulting from the layoff of temporary workers hired to prepare for the 2010 census. Over a million temporary workers are expected to be hired to conduct the census next year.
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