The prediction by the economic experts was for the unemployment figures released today to be between 5.7% and 5.9 percent. The figures just came in and unemployment is 6.1 percent, with 84,000 jobs lost.
This is disastrous, both for those out of a job and for the economy as a whole. The stock market dropped about 3 percent yesterday on anticipation of a bad unemployment report, but this is worse, I'd say much worse, than was imagined. Expect another severe decline in the marker today, maybe a new yearly low.
Some lowlights of the report after the fold.
The number of unemployed persons rose by 592,000 to 9.4 million in August, and the unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage point to 6.1 percent. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 2.2 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.4 percentage points, with most of the increase occurring over the past 4 months.
Among the unemployed, the number of persons who lost their last job rose by 417,000 to 4.8 million in August, with increases occurring among those on temporary layoff and those who do not expect to be recalled to work. Over the last 4 months, the number of unemployed job losers has
increased by 810,000.
The number of multiple jobholders increased by 298,000 in August to 8.1 million, accounting for 5.5 percent of total employed.