Results tagged “jobloss”

After the U.S. Department of Labor announced that October's unemployment rate was 10.2%, one thing that was left unsaid was the number of people who have been unemployed so long they've given up looking for work, not to mention the people who are working part-time but would rather be in full-time jobs. According to the NY Times, "In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982."

The State Department of Labor released July unemployment numbers yesterday and it was slightly better news for the state, not very good news for the city: "New York State's unemployment rate, after seasonal adjustment, decreased from 8.7 percent in June to 8.6 percent in July 2009," but "New York City's rate increased from 9.4 percent in June 2009 to 9.6 percent in July 2009." And NY State-not- including- NYC unemployment decreased from 8.2% in June to 7.9% last month. National unemployment fell from 9.5% in June to 9.4% in July. A state Labor Department economist said, "Although the national economy is showing signs of bottoming out, the outlook for the city’s economy remains weak into 2010.”

Even though the Department of Labor revealed that 345,000 jobs had been lost in May, it was still the least in the past 8 months. Bloomberg News says economists it survery had predicted "a decrease of 520,000 jobs"—which is why the markets (so far) have perked up. An economist at T. Rowe Price told the NY Times, "It supports the idea that before the end of the year and maybe even by late summer we could be at flat employment,” meaning no more net job losses. During the course of next year, we’ll probably start to feel better," but another at High Frequency Economics said, "These are still terrible numbers. We’re a million miles away from a recovery.”

The U.S. Department of Labor released the latest unemployment numbers: The unemployment rate was 8.1% in February, with 651,000 jobs slashed during the month. Reuters reports the 8.1% figure "was above market forecasts for a rise to 7.9 from January's 7.6 percent." This continues a trend of massive layoffs across the country since last year: 533,000 jobs were lost in November, 681,000 in December, and 655,000 in January.