By Mark Memmott

Businesses cut 467,000 jobs from their payrolls in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just announced, as the nation's jobless rate ticked up to a 26-year-high 9.5% from 9.4% in May.

There were 322,000 jobs cut from payrolls in May. Since the economy officially went into recession in December 2007, the number of people out of work has risen by 7.2 million.

Update at 9:25 a.m. ET. What do the losses in payroll employment look like in a graph? Here's a fever line, courtesy of the BLS' database. It starts in January 2007. You can see that employment edges up until December that year (when the recession officially began) and then heads down sharply:

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BLS.gov

 

Update at 8:45 a.m. ET. According to the Associated Press:

June's payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected.
However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn't as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.

Update at 8:40 a.m. ET: In a separate report, the Labor Department says the number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dipped by 16,000 last week to 614,000.

Trying to follow the economy's ups and downs? So is Planet Money.


categories: Business, National News

8:32 - July 2, 2009

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