US Unemployment

Posted on July 22, 2011 by townsend

• Unemployment rates rose in more than half of US states; 26 added jobs in June, Associated Press, July 22, 2011, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates rose in more than half of U.S. states in June, evidence that slower hiring is affecting many parts of the country. The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates in 28 states and Washington, D.C., increased last month. Rates declined in eight states and were flat in 14. That’s a change from May, when 24 states reported falling unemployment rates. Twenty-six states reported a net gain in jobs in June, while 24 states lost jobs. The changing trend in state unemployment rates reflects a weaker economy hampered by high gas prices and lower factory output. Nationally, employers added only 18,000 net jobs in June, the second straight month of feeble hiring. The U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2 percent…”
• Economic disconnect: Corporate profits surge while jobs and wages remain at recession levels, Associated Press, July 22, 2011, Washington Post: “Strong second-quarter earnings from McDonald’s, General Electric and Caterpillar on Friday are just the latest proof that booming profits have allowed Corporate America to leave the Great Recession far behind. But millions of ordinary Americans are stranded in a labor market that looks like it’s still in recession. Unemployment is stuck at 9.2 percent, two years into what economists call a recovery. Job growth has been slow and wages stagnant. ‘I’ve never seen labor markets this weak in 35 years of research,’ says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. Wages and salaries accounted for just 1 percent of economic growth in the first 18 months after economists declared that the recession had ended in June 2009, according to Sum and other Northeastern researchers…”