U.S. Unemployment Highest in Sixteen Years
January 9th, 2009The real unemployment rate is now somewhere between 14% to 21%.
Via: Reuters:
The U.S. unemployment rate surged to its highest level in nearly 16 years in December as a deepening year-long recession forced companies to slash payrolls by more than half a million jobs.
An accelerating pace of job losses towards the end of the year pointed to a bleak start for 2009 and increases chances the economic downturn could become the longest since the 1930s.
The Labour Department said on Friday the jobless rate jumped to 7.2 percent, the highest level since January 1993, from 6.8 percent in November. Economists had expected a smaller rise to 7 percent.
The surge reflected another month of deep job losses. Employers cut nonfarm payrolls by 524,000 in December, a bit less than analysts had predicted, but jobs losses for October and November were much greater than estimated earlier.
For the year as a whole, the economy shed 2.6 million jobs, the largest decline since a 2.75 million drop in 1945.
The real unemployment rate is now somewhere between 14% to 21%.
This is probably a good occasion to put on my Captain Obvious hat and remind everybody that government statistics on unemployment and inflation are data so completely cooked, they may as well be served up with a side of tartar sauce and a parsley garnish.