Unemployment Rate Hits 9.5 Percent As Economy Sheds 467,000 Jobs In June

The U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs in June as the national unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, the government announced on Thursday morning. While that's only one-tenth of a percentage point from May, the current rate is the highest rate in 26 years.

Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, said that the loss of 6.5 million jobs since the start of the recession combined with the growth of the workforce means that the gains of the previous business cycle have been completely blown away.

"This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all jobs growth from the previous business cycle, a devastating benchmark for the workers of this country and a testament to both the enormity of the current crisis and to the extreme weakness of jobs growth from 2000-2007," said Shierholz in a statement.

The ranks of the long-term unemployed -- people out of work for 27 weeks or more -- grew by 433,000 in June to a total of 4.4 million. Three in 10 of the unemployed are now long-term unemployed. The collapse of the housing industry contributes to their plight.

"We know right now because of the housing crisis that people can't move to find another job," Shierholz said. "People that in previous recessions may have been able to relocate to find another job can't now."

The Huffington Post has been profiling people who've been out of work for long periods of time. Marvin Bohn of Ohio hasn't worked for a year and has been paying for his meds out-of-pocket. Steve Dittmann of Kansas said of the unemployed life, "I feel like I'm on the other side of a Plexiglass wall looking in."

A broader measure of labor underutilization that accounts for people who've stopped looking for work hit 16.5% in June, a 0.1 percentage point increase.

"In June, there were large decreases in manufacturing, construction, and professional and business services," said Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall in a statement. "Together, these three sectors have accounted for nearly three-quarters of the jobs lost since the recession began.

Many economists have predicted that even when the recession is technically over with the economy beginning to expand, there will be a "jobless recovery" as unemployment hovers in the double-digits.

HuffPost readers: Have you joined the ranks of the long-term unemployed? Tell us about it -- email [e-mail].

Comments

[fedupscot]

I watched the "Lehrer Report" July 2, 2009 where the real unemployment report was discussed. I knew it was much higher than what government Employment Securities Department was telling us but, I was really surprised to hear the real figures. 16.5%...40 thousand homes were surveyed and the categories were 1) no longer receiving unemployment or didn't qualify for unemployment 2) looking for full time work; working part-time, 3) working part-time. 19 hours or less. The government doesn't count these categories in the censes and they calculate it by less than 40k phone calls. What is their reason for under reporting…I wish I could figure it out? It has always been calculated this way so we have never known what the unemployed figure really is.

[hhayden]

To make the government look like it is doing a better job than it actually is. Same reason they make up favorable numbers for job creation and everything else.

[Fabini]

The real multiplier is 5. Fives times the "official" unemployment number gives you the number of people who are unemployed, under-employed, unable to make payments, and destitute. 47.5% of Americans. That's even too scary for Jim Lehrer.

[periscope]

The Raygun administration's refusal to prosecute anti-trust violations, allowed banks and insurance companies to get "too big to fail." The Rethug repeal of the Glass-Steagall act, which prohibited banks from engaging in the brokerage business, led to their taking bigger and bigger investment risks for higher and higher returns. The deregulation mania of Bushboy and the gross incompetence laced throughout his administration, especially at the SEC, all contributed to the collapse of our economy.
It will take new jobs in new industries like Renewable Energy, Environmental Protection and new science based businesses (stem cell research, et. al.) to bring back the 3 million jobs necessary to reverse our decline.

[hhayden]

Why just new industries which conform to government policy? Why nor business of all kinds?

What is your pet name for the current president? Obummer?

[periscope]

Obama is an intelligent, mature, decent adult who works vigorously to solve problems without preconceived nostrums like his predecessor.
Bushboy gave $1 trillion in tax cuts to the rich and spent another near $1 trillion on unnecessary war. He never worked hard and whatever he did, he did for his rich, corporate friends.
Obama inherited Bushboy's problems. Finding solutions will take time and hard work. Things, Bushboy knew nothing about.

[wingnutgator]

the repeal of glass stegall occurred in 2000 and was signed by your boy slick willy. Reagan's policies gave us 20 years of the greatest prosperity in our history, I lived through the 70'''s and I will take the 80's and 90's when republican policies were ascendant any day.

[periscope]

The repeal of Glass-Steagall was the work of Phil Gramm and the Republican Congress that wasted our time and money trying to impeach Clinton for a peccadillo. If Republicans had spent as much time studying why Glass-Steagall shouldn't have been repealed and less time on Clinton's sex life, we would all be far better off.

[urweatherman]

Lets see how they spin this one......

[SC341]

What exactly is the Obama Administration doing to help the economy? He has the same people from Goldman Sachs running the economy as G.W. Bush did. Read Matt Taibbi's article in the August "Rolling Stone Magazine".

[hhayden]

Crossing their fingers that it will rebound despit them.

[joetrade]

If you are foolish enough to believe the BS figures out of Washington then you will except that Paulson was sving the country when the first $300 Billion disappeared into thin air and no one to this day knows where the taxpayers money went with the exception of the knomes at Goldman Sachs.Some­day, hopefully,the American people will wake the F@ck UP and I expest that if they ever do you will see a thriving business in guillotine­s.The American taxpayer has been raped by Wall Street and their stooges in Washington­.God help us when the failure of their ways comes to fruition.
.For the real unemployment numbers goto Google and punch in "real unemployment numbers"

[billw8017]

Do people actually meet to conspire against America's best interests? Of course, they do. We know that top business people have meetings every day and we can assume they discuss their interests and talk about more than golf. Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone article tells it like it is.

His only err or misdirection is in implying this might be something new. Amy Goodman featured a talk by Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now, earlier this Friday. Chomsky declared that James Madison, the "father of the US Constitution," believed the government should be in the hands of the "best" people. They would work through the legislature while the President would function more strictly as their administrator. The Senate has, for a long while, been described as the world's most exclusive millionaires club.

As a general rule, candidates get reviewed by major contributors, and money wins elections. You have to be very clear in your own mind what your interests must be if you would resist a highly monied campaign. Term limits and blind oppositions merely weaken what ever independence a legislature might have.

[urweatherman]

Barney Frank and all of the Kennedy's could have told us that!

[hhayden]

I work for a redio station which airs Mrs Goodman twice a day. It's a nest of liberals. Their attitude is, If wa can't change your mind, there is no reason to talk to you. That's how the White House thinks too. If you don't agree with us, you shouldn't have a voice.

[hhayden]

Didn't our Dear Leader promise unemployment wouldn't go over 8%? There is a bright spot, unemployment in Washington DC is at 4.5% I think. Perhaps that's why Obama's so called stimulus focuses on short term government jobs. I imagine they are making up new numbers as I type.

[Koreanovice]

I hope you were as critical as bush and his numbers of unemployed.

[Hope Lives]

Has it ever occurred to anyone that all the republicans have to do is keep the economy ruined and they might be voted back in. The President has had 20 people in the Senate who are in his own part y that agree with republicans because they live in red states. EVERY economist says we have to SPEND more and worry about deficits when everyone has a job. People without a job don't pay taxes and the deficit just grows on its own. Do not listen to the republicans. Do you really think they care if poor people have jobs or healthcare. George W. Bush signed into law the tax breaks that moved all of the taxes off the rich and onto the middle class. That's why they expire next year. How much longer will Independents believe them? If I asked you 3 years ago what it would take to almost bankrupt every bank in America, every investment firm and every bank in the WORLD. You would have said it would take a lot of planning. It did and it was a grand plan for the republicans to get rich and for you to lose your job. To them you're just one big sucker. The government MUST spend or there won't be any jobs.
The republicans cry deficit day after day but how long did it take Clinton to pay off the horrific Regan deficits? There are many ways to do it... it took him a few years.

[Koreanovice]

Agree, whole-heartedly!

[andy5555]

Has it ever occurred to you we are in a major recession and our nation is flat broke. When you are broke you cut spending it is as simple as that. Not every economist says that we should spend more, only the ones that are in the tank for the Obama administration. While I agree that Republicans have contributed to our current crisis, you cannot blame this whole situation on them. This is a bipartisan problem and I would argue that the Dems have contributed more than the Repubs. However it really does not matter, our politicians are crooks who look to spend money on their special interests and the people that got them in office. Anyhow I find it frustrating to see people look at things so one-sided, I feel this is what enables our politicians to spend like crazy with no accountability because people are so blinded by their hate for the other side.

[MajorKong]

Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?

[hhayden]

Good observation.

[ibsteve2u]

Betcha can't guess where the beneficiaries of Republican "trickle down" tax policies are putting all of their money: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXcTO7EP4eBc

Not a reversal, of course - just an increase..­.that is how all of those offshore factories which now hold American jobs - in large part - got built: With the tax savings that resulted from "trickle down" economics.

Once you subtract out Clinton's free trade actions from the legacy of his Presidency, we have not had a President whose Administration - in toto - was good for the vast majority of the American people for nigh on four decades.

[urweatherman]

4 years from now there probably won't be any factories left here under this president's policies..­..and honestly can't blame them!

[HMDMSR]

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/07/even-more-sobering-unemployment.html

"...Most pundits who crow about green shoots and about an inventory restocking in the third quarter giving way towards some sustainable economic expansion live in the old paradigm. They don’t realize, for whatever reason, that the deflationary aftershocks that follow a post-bubble credit collapse typically last for 5 to 10 years. Businesses understand better than the typical Wall Street or Bay Street economist and strategist that everything from order books, to output, to staffing have to now be restructured to adequately reflect a permanently lower level of leverage in the economy...­"

[judiNJ]

I am curious. Has anyone factored in the final bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler in these numbers? All the "whiners," as Phil Graham calls them, were going on about how bad it was because the Government didn't let them just fail, then how bad it was that the dealerships were closing all over the country and putting people out of work, but nobody is thinking about how many lost jobs were added to June's unemployment due to that very thing. If they had let GM and Chrysler fail, it would have more than doubled the number of job losses. Make up your minds, folks, it is not like you were not warned this was going to be worse before it got better. It has taken us 30, yes 30, years to get here and it will take more than a few months to get us out of this mess.

[hhayden]

It would help if someone were really trying.

How much tax money is it costing us to keep these jobs going? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just pay them to sit at home?

[urweatherman]

Thats what the progressives are thinking..­...and with free healthcare why work?

[420]

ONLY STUPID people blame Obama. Bush killed this economy along with all the greedy Wall Street freaks. This goes back to Regean

[judiNJ]

As well as companies moving their jobs offshore to India and China. More than 500 people in my company have lost their jobs since 2008, me included, because of this. This is why he is pushing for green technology and closing the offshore tax loophole the republicans love so much.

[hhayden]

Great. I always wanted it defined who the "stupid people" are. As a proud card caring stupid person I still must point out that the economy was down (not killed) do to democrat lending dictates and pratices and the economy didn't falter until the democrats took over congress. Prior to that things were going along very well.

[urweatherman]

AMEN!

[isis]

That is some nice cherry picking of information, stupid person.

[rollingdivision]

At this point in a normal downturn lasting 11 months, the economy should be booming — with big jumps in GDP and 300,000 new jobs each month coming mostly from the private sector.

But 18 months into this downturn, we're still losing jobs — with 2.7 million gone in the private sector just since January, when the Democrats took full control of the government.

Shrinking GDP has crushed investment. First quarter gross private domestic investment — a proxy for business investment — plunged 20%, or nearly $450 billion, annually. The outlook is grim.

Worse, the June jobs data mark a milestone of sorts: Our unemployment rate equals that of the no-growth Eurozone nations.

Why is this job decline happening? The private sector — the real engine of economic and job growth — won't hire because it's scared of what it sees coming out of Washington.

On the horizon, as far as the eye can see, are higher taxes, uncontrolled spending and layers upon layers of new regulations.

Who would hire new workers faced with that?

[hhayden]

Oh, that's easy - socialism shuts down innovation and initiative. And people and businesses are holding their breath waiting for the other shoes to drop. They don't know what counterproductive initiative will come up tomorrow. There is no sense of stability. We have a president who's trying to do too much at one time (Perhaps because he fears even the Zombies will catch on)

[Koreanovice]

So spending money on domestic programs is worst than spending on wars? But we are spending on wars, domestic, and banks and we still have this problem eventhough we haven't got but 10% of the money out the door. This has been in the making for a long time.

[hhayden]

Two wrongs (Or three or four) don't make a right. We should spend to help the free market. We have enough "programs" already.

[Antifascist-08]

As long as all the banks and other large financial institutions sit on their money in order to stay in business at all, we will continue to lose jobs. You notice that the republicans have no answer for job creation aside from their less taxes for the rich argument. They are perfectly willing to stand by and watch their handiwork bleed the life out of this country because they have theirs. This is turning into a giant squeeze play to kill the American middle class once and for all.

The greedy have killed our economy, and yes, it can get a lot worse. But I think that the American people are eventually going to split with the money mongers and move on to a better, sustainable economy. it may be a painful process, but we are tired of being controlled and manipulated by sociopaths.

[Tom Joad]

The 'game' was fixed decades ago. The privileged class created and economy after WWII that guranteed the outcome today. The slave class grows exponentially, a necessary condition to redistribute increasing quantities of wealth to the linearly growing privileged class. Since WWII, U.S. economic policy has favored the privileged class while creating the great American myth of a middle class. The right wing decries 'redistribution of wealth' yet were willing participants in massive redistribution of the people's wealth to a very privileged few. The majority of the American populace have less now than at any time in their history. There is no middle class, there is only a slave class and a privileged class...an­d the privileged demand more.

[isis]

People can't even try to have their own business these days because health care costs eat them alive. My uncle is a retired doctor who used to take things like eggs and homegrown produce for pay. Do you think that could happen now?

[ncmom54]

If Wall Street was a 5 alarm fire... Main Street is a 'Controlled Burn'
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/01/smallbusiness/small_business_owners_cut_to_bone.smb/index.htm

and which one produces the most jobs?

[Space Walker]

The economy is gonna tank and their will be civil unrest, you think this is bad, give it a year or so. The only way to offset whats coming is for an invention on a mass scale that is as revolutionary to mankind created such as the wheel or the use of fire.

[PhilipTaylor]

That is the only way to gain a DEMOCRACY and get rid of the FED Reserve and Cornie Mafia Run Capitalism in America!

[PhilipTaylor]

Automation of paper shuffling middle men like:

1. Bankers
2. Insurance - why don't we SELF-Insure all 306 Million of us!
3. Healthcare functions

Technology, Robotics, and Automation can free us from the DEBT Mongering Bankers and Insurance Companies! Likewise, with technology we can compete with 15 cent an hour labor and produce high quality!

Banking is one of the least automated industries on earth!.

[Antifascist-08]

We don't need robots, we have plenty of people who need jobs- honest people.

We do need to get rid of the debt based economy we seem to worship so much. Brainwashed is what we are.

Your points are well taken. Get rid of the middle men and the executives.

Insurance has always been a pyramid scheme, but now it has come home to roost.

[hhayden]

It's not saving GM.

[PhilipTaylor]

Fanned as Right ON!