Payrolls fell 467,000, unemployment rate rises to 9.5 percent in June

June payrolls fell by 467,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was higher than the 365,000 jobs economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected employers would shed.

The BLS said job losses were widespread across the major industry sectors, with large declines occurring in manufacturing, professional and business services and construction. While the BLS called the 9.5 percent unemployment rate "little changed," the rate did climb from the previous month's rate, reaching a 26-year high. Still, the rise wasn't as steep as economists had projected. The number of unemployed persons (14.7 million) was little changed.


Since the recession started in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 7.2 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 4.6 percentage point. Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs (9.6 million) was little changed in June after increasing by an average of 615,000 per month during the first five months of the year, the BLS stated in its press release.

Unemployment will "remain painfully high for several more years," Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen told Bloomberg this week. "I expect that we will turn the growth corner sometime later this year, but I am not optimistic that the economy will spring back to normal any time soon."

The only industry to add jobs was healthcare , which added 21,000 jobs during June. That's in line with the average monthly gain for the first five months of the year, but below the average gain of 30,000 jobs per month in 2008.

Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers in the private sector were unchanged in June at $18.53. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.7 percent. From May 2008 to May 2009, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers declined by 1.5 percent.

Lita Epstein has written more than 25 books including Surviving a Layoff: A Week by Week Guide to Getting Your Life Back Together.