Unemployment Rate is 8.1 Percent and Counting

Posted on | March 6, 2009 | No Comments

The Jobs Report is out and, as expected, the news is not good.  The unemployment rate leaped to 8.1 percent, a 26-year high.  The average unemployed person has been without work for 19.8 weeks.  The number of unemployed people is now roughly 12.5 million, with another 8.6 million people working part-time jobs while they search for full-time work.

The unemployment situation for minorities is even worse than the national rate.  However, women and Whites are faring slightly better, with unemployment rates of 6.7% and 7.3%, respectively.

Minority Unemployment Rates

Blacks (13.4%)

Hispanics (10.9%)

The economy has lost nearly 1,310,000 jobs in the first two months of 2009.  We’ve lost 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007.  Most of February’s losses came from three sectors–professional and business services, manufacturing and construction.

Manufacturing and construction have been loss leaders since the recession began, and the temporary help employment (staffing and temp agencies) closely followed.  The only change this month is that other professional services, services like building management, maintenance and repair services, are starting to slide.

Manufacturing, construction and professional services were loss leaders, but the job losses didn’t end there.

February’s Biggest Job Losers

(Number of jobs lost in February in parentheses)

• Manufacturing (168,000)
• Construction (104,000)
• Professional  & Business Services (180,000)
• Financial Activities (44,000)
• Retail (40,000)
• Leisure & Hospitality (33,000)

Unfortunately, the list of February’s biggest gainers is considerably shorter.

February’s Biggest Job Gainers

(Number of jobs lost in February in parentheses)

• Health Care (27,000)
• Government (9,000)
• Utilities (1,100)

Lest you think that this grand total of 36,000 additional jobs is the best news the report has to offer, consider this.  The job losses listed in the biggest loser list are really net losses, means that even though the industry sector lost jobs overall, some areas of the industry did actually gain jobs.  For instance, in the retail sector, department stores added 9,300 jobs and electronics and appliance stores added 1,800 jobs.  And, though the information sector was down 15,000 jobs overall, the sector added 6,500 motion picture and sound recording jobs.

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