February 6, 2009

Unemployment Rate Rises to 7.6 Percent in January

The January labor report was released today, exceeding economist’s original predictions with a new unemployment rate of 7.6 percent. According to this month’s employment situation summary, "Payroll employment has declined by 3.6 million since the start of the recession in December 2007; about one-half of this decline occurred within the past three months."

Despite the reported continuous increase of unemployed persons, the number of workers who took part-time positions because they were unable to find full-time work was relatively unchanged in January. Employers cut a total of 598,000 jobs in January, the highest cut in one month since 1974.

The devastation of this month's report adds to the increasing pressure mounting on the Obama administration to pull the country out of the current recession.

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