Washington: The US saw a staggering 216,000
job losses in August, pushing the country's unemployment rate
to a 26-year-high of 9.7 per cent even as the country's
recession-hit economy is slowly showing signs of recovery.
The jobless rate has shot up in August from 9.4 per cent
in July.
"Non-farm payroll employment continued to decline in
August (-216,000) and the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 per
cent," the US Labor Department said in a statement today.
Even though the August unemployment rate is the highest
since 1983, the pace of job cuts have "moderated in recent
months".
Reflecting the shaky economic situation, as many as 6.9
million "pay roll" jobs have evaporated since the nation
officially slipped into recession in December 2007.
Last month, the count of unemployed people jumped by
466,000 to 14.9 million.
Since the recession began, the "number of unemployed
persons has risen by 7.4 million, and the unemployment rate
has grown by 4.8 percentage points".
Hit by one of the worst financial turmoils in nearly 80
years, American companies have resorted to massive layoffs as
part of their measures to bring down costs.
According to the Labor Department, manufacturing sector
and financial businesses shed 63,000 and 28,000 jobs
respectively in August.
As per the latest figures, the jobless rates for adult
men stood at 10.1 per cent in August while it was 7.6 per cent
for adult women, teenagers (25.5 per cent) and blacks (15.1
per cent).
"When the recession began in December 2007, the jobless
rate was 4.9 per cent. A total of 14.9 million persons were
unemployed in August, about twice the number at the start of
the recession," Bureau of Labor Statistics' Commissioner
Keith Hall said.
Earlier this week, ADP National Employment Report showed
that US private companies slashed 298,000 jobs in August, the
lowest since September 2008.
In recent months, the economy has been showing tentative
signs of recovery and the national GDP shrank one per cent in
the second quarter of 2009, much less than expected.
During the first three months of this year, the economy
had contracted 6.4 per cent.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, September 04, 2009, 21:11