The Labor Department reported Thursday that U.S. employers cut 467,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent, which is nearly a 26-year high. Reuters reports that the jobs cuts were 100,000 more than Wall Street economists had been expecting. The economy has now lost 6.5 million jobs since the recession began on Decemeber 2007.
The AP says jobs cuts were widespread covering most sectors. Only education and health services added jobs.
Professional and business services slashed 118,000 jobs, more than double the 48,000 cut in May. Manufacturers cut 136,000, down from 156,000. Construction companies got rid of 79,000 jobs, up from 48,000 the previous month. Retailers eliminated 21,000, up from 17,600. Financial activities cut 27,000, following 30,000 in May. The government cut 52,000 jobs, up from 10,000 the previous month. Leisure and hospitality cut 18,000 jobs, erasing a gain of the same size in May.
One of the few industries adding jobs: education and health services, which added 34,000 positions last month and 47,000 in May.
The big June figures are a clear sign that the pace of layoffs is not slowing down. U.S. News provides a good Q&A on what this latest jobs report means here.
ADP: U.S. Companies Cut Payrolls by 473,000 in June
Bloombergreports that ADP Employer Services estimates that employers cut 473,000 jobs in June. This would be a sign that job losses are not slowing. Economists had been expecting a smaller figure.
The 473,000 drop in the ADP Employer Services gauge followed a revised reduction of 485,000 workers in May that was smaller than previously estimated.
Job losses may mount as the bankruptcies of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC ripple through manufacturing. Increased firings threaten to further restrain consumer spending at a time when the world’s largest economy is showing signs of stabilizing.
"This is a weak number," Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, said on a conference call with reporters. "It's a pretty clear indication that, while we’re not shedding jobs as rapidly as the first part of the year, the labor market is still in a state of decline."
Bloomberg says tomorrow's jobs report from the Labor Department may show employers cut 363,000 jobs in June and that unemployment climbed to 9.6%. This would indicate deep losses and that employers are still firing and not hiring.
Swine Flu Pandemic Will Give Employers Major Headaches
The Independentreports that the swine flu pandemic could leave the UK with 15-20% of its workforce sick at home at its peak this fall. Experts estimate that 50% of UK residents could fall ill from the h1n1 virus.
The letter followed an earlier warning from Sir Liam that millions of Britons could fall victim to swine flu in the coming months. Government officials admitted last night that illness rates from the virus could reach 50 per cent.
Primary care trusts are now being briefed to expect that the pandemic could affect as much as 40 per cent of the workforce before the end of the year, with many worried that there could be a surge of cases in the autumn, according to health industry sources.
The Department of Health sought to reassure the public last night. A spokesman said: "Previous pandemics have seen total illness levels of 25-35 per cent. So our plans are as robust as possible, we have based them on illness rates of 50 per cent, though we do not anticipate it being this high in the current pandemic. Based on this figure, the workforce could be reduced by 15-20 per cent at the pandemic's peak. In the unlikely event that every school closed, this could rise to 35 per cent." He said it was impossible to predict when the pandemic would peak, but added: "As part of ongoing planning, the NHS is being asked to ensure that antiviral collection points could, if needed, be put into action in a week."
Keen to avoid panic, the Government is careful to present official statistics showing "laboratory-confirmed" cases, which currently stand at 2,244. Yet the true scale of infections is far higher than headline figures suggest. The total number of cases either confirmed by laboratory tests or "clinically presumed" currently stands at 3,725.
Some of those employees will also need to be hospitalized and could be out of work for much longer than others. Some will also die from the virus. The swine flu has already been killing people in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s age groups. This trend is likely to continue. Even if the swine flu kills just 1 out of every 300 people infected, the total number killed is going to be very large if half of the UK's population is affected. The people dying from the virus are in a demographic that includes the majority of the working population. The article says 50% of UK's population could fall ill from the virus before the end of the year. The U.S. is likely to face a very similar health and productivity issue because of the pandemic.
You can find a long list of h1n1 swine flu resources here.
President Obama Says Unemployment Rate Will Reach 10%
Bloombergreports that President Obama acknowledged today that the unemployment rate is going to pass the 10% mark this year.
"You're starting to see the engines of the economy turn," Obama said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the White House. "It's going to take a long time -- we had a huge de-leveraging that took place."
Obama acknowledged that unemployment lines may keep growing despite government efforts to boost economic growth, saying he's confident an expansion will begin "shortly." His outlook mirrors the forecasts of private economists who predict a jobless rate of 10 percent -- a level unseen since 1983 -- by the final three months of the year.
"What you've seen is that the pace of job loss has slowed," the president said. "The economy is going to turn around, but as you know, jobs are a lagging indicator and we've got to produce 150,000 jobs every month just to keep pace, just to flatten this out."
Hopefully, President Obama is correct but there have not yet been signs of a turnaround and losing 345,000 jobs in a month - like we did in May - is not much of a slowdown.
Many economists welcomed the May jobs report as a positive sign even though the economy lost anouther 345,000 jobs and unemployment climbed to 9.4%. The optimism is only there because there were genuine fears the economy was in a terrifying free-fall.
Economists described the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, released Friday, as an unambiguous sign of improvement, yet also clear evidence of broadening national distress, as millions of households grapple with joblessness and lost working hours.
The fact that a report showing the highest unemployment rate in more than a quarter-century was embraced optimistically testified to the stark fears over the economy in recent months.
"The free fall that the job market was in does finally appear to be tapering off," said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh. "It's the prelude to an economic and job recovery later this year."
VOA Newsreports that the unemployment rate is currently higher than the White House and analysts had expected and forecasted months ago.
The White House says America's employment picture is worse than the Obama administration had anticipated just a few months ago. The somber admission follows the latest jobless report showing the highest unemployment rate the United States has seen in more than 25 years.
U.S. unemployment jumped a half percent in May, to 9.4 percent prompting this comment by Austan Goolsbee, a member of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisors:
"The economy clearly has gotten substantially worse from the initial predictions that were being made, not just by the White House, but by all of the private sector," said Austan Goolsbee.
The high unemployment rate is likely why President Obama announced a new plan (PDF file) to create jobs today. The Christian Science Monitornotes that the plan has little room for error.
Yet the administration is still in rescue mode. On Monday, it formally announced its plan to step up its recovery efforts and create 600,000 jobs, including 125,000 summer jobs for youth.
This may be a good thing. A recession that's moderating is still a recession. People are still losing their jobs at a faster rate than they’re finding new ones. Supporters of continued stimulus are those who see no recovery this year – or such a weak one that it will still feel like recession.
But the economy moves so fast – and government stimulus moves so slowly – that the administration risks falling behind the curve.
Several experts quoted here in a U.S. News article say they expect job losses to continue to moderate but the unemployment rate is still expected to come closer to or exceed 10%.
Job losses may moderate but it could be difficult to estimate the fallout from the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies. Retail sales in May were also weak and another weak month or two could result in more layoffs in the retail industry. There are many unknowns we have to yet to face in this recession.
Marketwatch reports a survey of economists finds that payrolls are expected to show the economy lost another half a million jobs in May. The economists surveyed expect the unemployment rate is to climb to 9.2%
The Labor Department will release the May employment report on Friday at 8:30 a.m. It's the biggest economic release in a week chock full of data covering every sector of the economy.
In "normal circumstances," such heavy job losses "would be seen as very bad news," wrote Brian Bethune and Nigel Gault, economists at IHS Global Insight. But these times are anything but normal.
Investors "may be encouraged that the pace of job losses appears to be slowing -- albeit marginally," wrote Meny Grauman, an economist for CIBC World Markets. It would be the smallest monthly job loss since 380,000 were lost in October in the wake of the financial panic that followed the collapse of Lehman Bros.
500,000 lost jobs will be the lowest monthly number since last October. It may seem like good news to some that a smaller number of jobs are being lost but 500,000 lost jobs is not really a positive sign. It's a sign of a very unhealthy economy. The May jobs report will be out next Friday.
One branch of the ELG Insurance company has a policy that takes casual Friday even farther. The brance celebrates Bahama Fridays. The bikinis seem like they would be a little distracting but Branch Manager Steve Rotondo says Bahama Fridays boost moral and productivity. It's also possible that this is just a very clever marketing campaign for the Bahamas. Take a look:
ADP Reports Private Employers Cut 742,000 Jobs in March
Reuters reports that a report released by ADP Employer Services says 742,000 jobs were cut by private employers in March. The February number was also revised to 706,000 job cuts - up slight from 697,000.
Private employers cut jobs by a record 742,000 in March versus a 706,000 revised cut in February that was originally reported at 697,000 jobs, said ADP, which has been carrying out the survey since 2001.
The big drop foreshadows a huge decline in the non-farm payroll reading in the government's employment report that will be released on Friday, some analysts said.
"It's a terrible number. It is almost a loss of three quarters of a million jobs which is possibly the highest we have seen so far over the length of this crisis," said Matt Esteve, foreign exchange trader with Tempus Consulting in Washington
This is a very large number job cuts. We will find out Friday if the government's number are similar.
The unemployment rose to 8.1% in February after another 651,000 jobs were lost in February according to the Labor Department. The Wall Street Journalquotes Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, who says we will reach 10% unemployment by the end of 2009.
The number of jobless Americans rose to 12.5 million in February, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.1%, up from 7.6% in January, said the Labor Department.
"We'll be at 10% unemployment by year end," said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. "What's going to stop it?"
The U.S. has lost 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007 -- more than half the losses coming in the last four months as the worst financial crisis in decades has intensified the economy's steep decline.
The jobs data is really grim. Bloomberg gives you an idea of just how bad it is when they note that job losses have now exceeded 600,000 for three straight months - the "first time this has happened since the data began in 1939."
Unemployment Related Search Terms Spiked in December
The Wall Street Journalreports that searches using the word "unemployemnt" triped in December 2008 when compared to December 2007. Searches for "unemployment benefits" and "bankruptcy" also soared.
The market-research firm reports that December 2008 search-engine queries using the word "unemployment" tripled to 8.2 million from December 2007. “"Unemployment benefits" saw an even sharper spike - 748,000, up from 215,000 a year ago - while "bankruptcy" searches more than doubled to 2.6 million.
"Mortgage" and "foreclosure" queries grew 72% and 156%, respectively.
The research also found that search terms like "coupons" and "discounts" are on the rise. That's not a surprise since consumers are reportedly growing less self-onscious about using coupons. During a time period when people are worried about jobs or out-of-work trying to save money makes good sense.
Nonfarm payrolls fell 598,000 in January according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Labor. December was also revised to a loss of 577,000.
Nonfarm payrolls fell by a seasonally adjusted 598,000 in January after a revised loss of 577,000 in December, the government said. It's the largest payroll loss since December 1974, according to a survey of workplaces. Payrolls fell by 597,000 in November.
"Job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors," said Keith Hall, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturing saw its largest decline in 26 years.
Unemployment climbed to 7.6%. It was the deepest cut in payrolls in 34 years. It was also higher than the 525,000 losses economists were expecting. Nearly 3.6 million jobs have now been lost since the recession began.
Pep Rally's Get People Fired Up For Job Hunting in Japan
Pep rallies are held in Japan to get young people motivated to hunt for a job.
Cheerleaders and live music are part of the pep rallies. Reuters says the pep rallies are held by colleges and vocational schools. Take a look:
Another 500,000+ Jobs Lost in December. Unemployment Climbs to 7.2%
The number of jobs lost in November was similar to November. Nonfarm payroll employment declined sharply in December, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.8 to 7.2 percent - this is a 16-year record. Payroll employment fell by 524,000 over the month and by 1.9 million over the last 4 months of 2008. In December, job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors.
The New York Timessays the total number of jobs lost in the recession is now 2.59 million. That number is likely to grow as companies are not done making cuts.
The December decline in jobs came on top of similar losses in October and November. Not since 1980 has the work force shrunk so much in just three months. Companies across all industries are grappling with sales that are deteriorating rapidly just as they lose easy access to loans.
"The simplest way for a company to hoard cash is to drain their inventories and fire their workers," said Robert J. Barbera, chief economist at the Investment Technology Group, a research and trading firm, "and everywhere you look, that is what is happening."
The total number of jobs lost in the recession now totals 2.59 million, counting upward revisions for October and November, with many more job losses expected in coming months.
In some cases companies are filing for bankruptcy or liquidating and jobs are lost because the company is gone. You can see the complete report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics here.
This video from CareerTV has some good tips from CalTech for those prepping for a job interview. Some of the tips include research the employer as much as possible on the Internet. Going beyond the Internet by finding people who worked for the employer is also a good idea because they might have insight not available online. Another tip from the video is to practice for the interview. They also explain the STAR method for deconstructing an interview question. STAR stands for Situation Task Action Result. Take a look:
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The Wall Street Journal 