The Militant - June 1, 2009 -- Unemployment jumps in April by half million

Vol. 73/No. 21 June 1, 2009

Unemployment jumps in
April by half million

BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
The official unemployment rate jumped to 8.9 percent in April, up from 8.5 percent a month earlier, reported the U.S. Department of Labor. The Wall Street Journal, echoed by other capitalist media, presented this figure as a “moderated” pace of “job losses” and a sign that the economy might be recovering.

That won’t come as heartening news to the 539,000 workers who had their jobs eliminated by the bosses last month, according to government figures. It brings the number of jobs cut since the recession began in December 2007 to 5.7 million.

There are now 13.7 million workers on the unemployment rolls. In addition, 2.1 million are categorized as “marginally attached” to the workforce, meaning although they’re out of work the government doesn’t count them as unemployed. Another 8.9 million workers, unable to get full-time jobs, have been forced into part-time hours. This brings the unemployed and underemployment rate to 15.8 percent, compared to 9.2 percent a year ago.

Of those officially listed as jobless, 27.2 percent were unemployed for more than six months, the highest figure on record, according to the New York Times. Among the reasons the job cuts in April were lower than the upwardly revised figure of 699,000 job cuts in March is that the government hired 72,000 temporary workers to prepare for the 2010 census.

Manufacturing companies cut 149,000 jobs in April, bringing the total production jobs eliminated since September 2008 to 1.6 million. Construction bosses last month slashed 110,000 jobs.

The official unemployment rate for Blacks is 15 percent, up by 1.7 percent from the previous month. For Latinos the rate is 11.3 percent; for teenagers it’s 21.5 percent.

Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home