US Lost 62K Jobs in June

Unemployment at 9.9% as job seekers re-enter market

(AP) - Employers stepped up job creation in April, expanding payrolls by 290,000, the most in four years, the AP reports. The jobless rate also rose, to 9.9%, as people resumed their searches for work. The hiring of 66,000 temporary government workers to conduct the census helped overall payroll growth last month. Private employers added a surprisingly strong 231,000 positions in April, also the most since March 2006, the Labor Dept. reported today. More»

Companies cut 190,000 jobs last month

(NEWSER) - Unemployment cracked the 10% barrier last month, as 190,000 workers lost their jobs, according to Labor Department figures released today. The bigger-than-expected losses bring the rate to 10.2%, a 26-year high. And the underemployment rate, which includes would-be full-timers working part time and those who've given up looking for work, hit a record high of 17.5%. “It is no surprise that consumer confidence is backpedaling, and the outlook for consumer spending is poor,” one economist tells Bloomberg. More»

(NEWSER) - Unemployment hit 8.1% in February, its highest level since late 1983, as employers cut 651,000 jobs, the government said today. That’s worse than the 7.9% analysts predicted, thanks to revised numbers from January and December that were much worse than originally reported. December’s revised loss of 681,000 jobs makes it the worst month since October 1949, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

(NEWSER) - Nonfarm payrolls plunged 598,000 in January, the Labor Department announced today, bringing the total job losses to 3.6 million since the recession began in December 2007. The drop was significantly worse than analysts anticipated, and the worst since December 1974, the Wall Street Journal reports. The jobless rate jumped to 7.6% for the month, a 16-year high. Included in the report were revisions showing that the US lost about 3 million jobs last year, up from the 2.6 million previously estimated. More»

Biggest drop in 34 years

(NEWSER) - November saw 553,000 Americans lose their jobs, according to a Labor Department non-farm payrolls report, the steepest drop in 34 years. The number exceeded even the grimmest predictions in Bloomberg’s survey of 73 analysts. “The labor market capsized in November,” said one economist. “The financial panic has hammered the economy, and we are seeing a very broad-based decline in payrolls.” More»