Friday, October 02, 2009
This morning, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released their monthly "Economic Situation Summary", and the results are decidedly mixed. Economists were hoping to see signs of continued improvement in the job market, but instead, the losses were deeper than expected. The U.S. economy lost 263,000 jobs last month (as opposed to predictions of around 200,000 job losses), and unemployment crept up to 9.8%.
Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (10.3 percent), adult women (7.8 percent), teenagers (25.9 percent), whites (9.0 percent), blacks (15.4 percent), and Hispanics (12.7 percent)--showed little change in September. The unemployment rate for Asians was 7.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted. The rates for all major worker groups are much higher than at the start of the recession.
The news isn't all negative, however. The report also notes that, although the job losses were worse than expected, the situation is still far better than that of 6 months ago.
From May through September, job losses averaged 307,000 per month, compared with losses averaging 645,000 per month from November 2008 to April. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 7.2 million.
As we just noted yesterday, although these numbers are scary, there are still jobs to be had. Knowing your strengths as a candidate and positioning yourself properly will allow you to take advantage of the millions of current job openings. The job market will recover; it's just going to take some time.
Check out the full job report at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Posted by Brad Karsh on October 02, 2009 at 08:47 AM
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