Unemployment Hits 8.5%, Highest in 25 Years

(NEWSER) - Stocks ran out of gas at the open today, as investors digested a grim jobs report. The Dow and S&P were essentially flat, the Wall Street Journal reports, while the Nasdaq inched higher, on strong earnings from Research in Motion. The BlackBerry maker posted a 26% gain in earnings and was rewarded with a more than 21% share jump. The Labor Department’s latest report showed unemployment at a 25-year-high. More»

Jobs put in best showing since 2007

(NEWSER) - Job losses slowed and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in November, the Labor Department announced today, in its most positive jobs report since 2007. Nonfarm payrolls fell by a mere 11,000, while the unemployment rate, which is determined by surveying households rather than companies, fell from 10.2% to an even 10%. Economists had predicted that the rate would hold steady, notes the Wall Street Journal . More»

Fed officials predict it will take about 5 years to return to normal

(NEWSER) - Unemployment will remain higher than normal for years to come, Fed officials predicted today. Even at the end of 2012, the rate is forecast to be between 6.8% and 7.5%—a decent turnaround from the current 10.2% but still about 2 points higher than the figure in healthy times. Even though the economy is technically in recovery, it will take "about five or six years" for the labor market to right itself, the officials said. 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) - The US lost 216,000 jobs last month, driving unemployment to 9.7%, its highest level since 1983, the Wall Street Journal reports. The silver lining is that job losses have slowed; payrolls dropped a revised 276,000 in July, and earlier months saw losses of as many as 700,000 jobs. “The labor market’s healing process is agonizingly slow,” one economist tells Bloomberg. Individuals will “be contending with a weak labor market for some time.” More»