The “Big R” is upon us, though economists, analysts and the Fed Chair all disagree on whether we’re there yet. One economic indicator that lends credence to the assertion that the recession is here now is the continued rise in the unemployment rate. For the month of December the unemployment rate was 5.0%, a 0.3% increase over the November unemployment rate of 4.7%.
While a 0.3% increase sounds insignificant, it represents 474,000 more unemployed people for a total of 7.7 million unemployed.
Driving the upward trend are job losses in construction, manufacturing and retail. The Manufacturing sector lost 31,000 jobs Manufacturing employment in December, most notably in motor vehicles and parts (6,000 jobs lost), wood products (4,000 jobs lost), electrical equipment and appliances (3,000 jobs lost), and textile mills (2,000 jobs lost).
Losses in the Retail (-24,000), Information (-13,000 jobs) and, thanks, in part to the writers’ strike and continued decline in record sales, the motion picture and sound recording (-12,000 jobs), and broadcasting industries (-4,000 jobs) also contributed to the increased unemployment rate.
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