Not only was June a horrible month for jobs but May was even worse than previously announced.
AP (“Unemployment rose to 9.2 percent as hiring stalls“):
Hiring slowed to a near-standstill last month. Employers added the fewest jobs in nine months and theunemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent.
The economy generated only 18,000 net jobs in June, the Labor Department said Friday. And the number of jobs added in May was revised down to 25,000.
The latest report offered stark evidence that the recovery will be painfully slow. Businesses added the fewest jobs in more than a year. Governments cut 39,000 jobs. Over the past eight months, federal, state and local governments have cut a combined 238,000 positions.
Two years after the recession officially ended, companies are adding fewer workers despite record cash stockpiles and healthy profit margins.
Hiring has slowed sharply in the past two months, after the economy added an average of 215,000 jobs per month in the previous three months.
The economy typically needs to add 125,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth. And at least twice that many jobs are needed to bring down the unemployment rate.
@mitrebox quips, “At this rate, next month the Whitehouse will be able to tweet the name of each person who found a job.” Sadly, that’s about right.
