WASHINGTON – Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, suggesting that the economy's road to recovery will be bumpy.
The Labor Department report, released Thursday, showed that even as the recession flashes signs of easing, companies likely will want to keep a lid on costs and be wary of hiring until they feel certain the economy is on solid ground.
June's payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected and average weekly earnings dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.
However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn't as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.
They are going to have a hard time spinning this one, expect "Blame Bush".
Rob,
ReplyDeleteA jobless economic recovery? I'm still waiting for the signs of the economic recovery bit. Inventories still have not increased. The only signs of economic recovery we've seen in the last three months is an improvement in consumer confidence (that's now in the tank) and a slowing in the rate of unemployment (which increased from May to June). We are pretty much out of "green shoots" at the moment.
I know, just playing on words to remind people of how the media played up the "Jobless" Recovery.
ReplyDeleteObama’s ill-advised $700B+ “stimulus” program is a train-wreck in progress: these jobs figures are far worse than the ones the White House warned us about if we DIDN’T pass the bill- so it was passed, and then unemployment soars anyway?
ReplyDeleteInstead of creating jobs, interest rates were bumped up, the dollar slid… and it didn’t help anybody get any work. Much of this is due to the fact that Obama’s radical agenda has mortified almost every machine of job-and-growth creation in the country.
The One couldn’t deliver the type of “temporary, targeted, and timely” bill that he promised repeatedly- regardless of his image in the MSM as almighty, Obama simply lacks the the political stature to control Pelosi and Reid… who hit the trough hard, while bickering like siblings.
And the lack of GOP co-conspirators exposed Obama politically… this legislation now looks to be a HUGE gamble. And when all this pork-n-welfare fails to generate any real economic gains, the Democrats will face a bloodbath in 2010.
One could even make the argument that Obama knows his legacy will be in tatters by 2012… and is just ramming through as much of his far-left agenda as he can before the day comes when people cringe at the mere mention of his name… sure seems like it.