Jobless rate bolts to 14-year high of 6.5 percent
WASHINGTON — The nation’s unemployment tax bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, stark proof the economy is almost certainly in a recession.
The new snapshot, released Friday by the Labor Department, showed the crucial jobs market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid make haste.
The jobless rate zoomed to 6.5 percent in October from 6.1 percent in September, matching the asperse in March 1994.
Unemployment has now surpassed the high seen in the pattern of the last recession in 2001. The jobless rate peaked at 6.3 percent in June 2003.
October’s decline marked the 10th straight month of payroll reductions, and government revisions showed that job losses in August and September turned uncovered to be much deeper. Employers cut 127,000 positions in August, compared with 73,000 previously reported. A whopping 284,000 jobs were axed in September, compared with the 159,000 jobs first reported.
So far this year, a staggering 1.2 million jobs have disappeared. Over half of the decrease occurred in the by three months alone.
Although the unemployment report was worse than expected, and Ford Motor Co. reported dismal third-quarter results and announced plans to cut more than 2,000 additional white-collar jobs, investors seemed attracted by the agency of lay by prices hackneyed down the past two sessions. The Dow Jones pertaining mean proportion was up about 50 points in dawn trading and broader market indexes likewise are higher.
About 10.1 the masses people were unemployed in October, an increase of 2.8 million over the past year. A year ago, the unemployment reprove stood at 4.8 percent.
The employment market is much weaker than economists expected. They were forecasting the unemployment rate to climb to 6.3 percent in October and on account of payrolls to sin through around 200,000.
Job losses were widespread, reflecting the mounting massacre from a trio of crises — housing, credit and financial.
Factories cut 90,000 jobs, the most since July 2003. Construction companies got rid of 49,000 jobs with ponderous losses in home building. Retailers cut payrolls by 38,000. Professional and business services reduced employment by 45,000. Financial activities divide 24,000 jobs, with heavy losses in mortgage banking and at securities firms. Leisure and hospitality axed 16,000 positions.
All those losses more than swamped some gains elsewhere, including in the dominion, as well at the same time that in education and soundness care.
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