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Wall Street Dodges a Bullet with Inline Unemployment Report

The Street really dodged a bullet with this morning’s unemployment report. The Labor Department reported 62,000 jobs were lost in June as the unemployment rate held firm at 5.5%, roughly in line with economist forecasts. We could have easily been looking at a triple digit loss today. Total nonfarm unemployment was hurt by 43,000 jobs shed in the construction, 33,000 in manufacturing and noticeably the largest, professional and business services which dropped by 51,000. That was somewhat offset by a 29,000 increase in education and health services, 24,000 in leisure and hospitality and 29,000 in government employment.

Some other notable statistics that can be gleaned from the unemployment report according to the AP:

• Job losses in both April and May turned out to be considerably deeper than had been thought. Payrolls dropped by 67,000 in April, versus the 28,000 previously reported. And, losses in May came to 62,000, rather than the 49,000 initially estimated.

• It was the sixth consecutive month of jobs losses; no overall gain has been reported in 2008.

• So far this year, the economy has lost a total of 438,000 jobs, an average of 73,000 a month.

• The number of unemployed people in June was 8.5 million, up from 7 million a year ago.

For more interesting statistics and charts on the unemployment figures, copy and paste the following link into your browser: http://www.bls.gov/web/ceshighlights.pdf

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