Job Losses Down, Unemployment Up

Posted on | May 8, 2009 | No Comments

According to this month’s Labor Department jobs report, employers cut 539,000 jobs in April, that’s the lowest number of cuts in six months.  Unfortunately, the unemployment rate bounced to 8.9%, a 4.5% increase over last month.  There are now 13.7 million people unemployed, 3.7 million of whom have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more.  While the national unemployment rate is high, unemployment is even higher among minorities, men, teenagers, high school grads and those without a high school diploma.  Unemployment rates for Asians and women were 6.6% and 7.1%, respectively.

Unemployment by Demographic

• Blacks (15%)
• Hispanics (11.3%)
• Men (9.4%)
• Teens (21.5%)

Unemployment by Educational Level

• Less than a high school diploma (14.8%)
• High school graduates (9.3%)
• Some college or associate degree (7.4%)
• Bachelors degree or higher (4.4%)

Nearly every job sector saw job losses in April, though most of the job cuts were in the manufacturing sector which lost 149,000 jobs.  More than half of the cuts in the professional and business services sector were in temporary help services.  Construction jobs continue to be battered by the state of the housing and commercial real estate markets.  Retail and leisure and hospitality are suffering because cautious consumers are spending less.

Biggest Job Losers

(Number of jobs cut in parentheses)

1. Manufacturing (149,000)
2. Professional & Business Services (122,000)
3. Construction (110,000)
4. Retail (47,000)
5. Leisure & Hospitality (44,000)

The list of industries that gained jobs is, unfortunately, very short.

Biggest Job Gainers

1. Health care (17,000)
2. Federal government (66,000)
3. State government education (5,600)

Health care continued its growth trend.  Growth in federal government jobs was largely due to the hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010 preparatory work.

Overall, the report was better than expected, signaling we may be nearly our bottom.

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