Published Friday, September 5th, 2008

The unemployment rate has hit a new 5 year high in August; 2008 has seen 608,000 jobs lost in this economy. The unemployment rate rose again to 6.1%, the highest level since September 2003, up from 5.7% in July and 4.7% a year ago. That 0.4% rise accounted for 84,000 jobs lost as compared to July’s 60,000.

Where are these jobs being cut from? Biggest loss of jobs comes from the manufacturing sector with 61,000 jobs cut. The second biggest loss is the services industry including accountants, consultants and legal services with 53,000 jobs lost. Retailers, despite the season and the stimulus checks, cut jobs by 20,000. Construction at 8,000 and leisure & hospitality lost 4,000.

To offset the numbers, jobs in the education and health industries gained 72,000. Average earnings rose to $18.14 in August, a 0.4% increase from July to make the year to date rise of 3.6%.

The Federal Reserve stated that the economy is still “weak.” As reported by NBC, the fed is to let the interest rate remain at 2% for the remainder of the year despite concerns of inflation and slow growth.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Jobs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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