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Investing and Economics Blog

Unemployment Rate Increased to 8.9%

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in April, and the unemployment rate rose from 8.5 to 8.9 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been lost. In April, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major private-sector industries. Overall, private-sector employment fell by 611,000.

The number of unemployed persons increased by 563,000 to 13.7 million. Unemployment rates for April for adult men reached 9.4% and for adult women 7.1%. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 498,000 to 3.7 million over the month and has risen by 2.4 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.

The civilian labor force participation rate rose in April to 65.8 percent, and the employment-population ratio was unchanged at 59.9 percent. The employment-population ratios for adult men and women showed little or no change over the month. However, since December 2007, the men’s ratio was down by 440 basis points, while the women’s ratio was down by 130 basis points. Since those that stop looking for work (retire or just stop actively looking) are not counted as unemployed the participation rate is a useful statistic to examine in conjunction with the unemployment rate.

Much of the commentary on the April job losses have been that the decrease in the number of job losses from previous months shows the economy is stabilizing. While it is true losing 611,000 jobs is better than losing 700,000 jobs, losing 611,000 is still very bad. The unemployment rate increased to 8.9% and long term unemployment is increasing drastically. This is hardly good economic news. It is true that there is hope that the economy is turning around, but the employment data we have so far is hardly positive (employment data is a lagging economic indicator so it is not surprising employment data does not recover before other signs point to improvement).

Related: Another 663,000 Jobs Lost in March in the USA – USA Unemployment Rate Rises to 8.1%, Highest Level Since 1983 – Over 500,000 Jobs Disappeared in November – What Do Unemployment Stats Mean?

May 11th, 2009 John Hunter | 3 Comments | Tags: Economics, Financial Literacy

Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. USA Unemployment Rate Jumps to 9.4% (May 2009) at Curious Cat Economics Blog on June 5, 2009 11:18 am

    Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 345,000 in May, about half the average monthly decline for the prior 6 months…

  2. Another 450,000 Jobs Lost in June 2009 at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog on July 2, 2009 11:50 am

    Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in June (by 467,000), and the unemployment rate increased to 9.5% (with a total of 14.7 million unemployed)…

  3. USA Adds 216,00 Jobs in March and the Unemployment Rate Stands at 8.8% at Curious Cat Economics Blog on May 6, 2011 2:34 pm

    Since a recent low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.5 million. This is more good news though the economy needs to add jobs more quickly to make a significant dent in the jobs lost since the misdeeds of large financial institutions precipitated the credit crisis and threw so many people out of work…

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