Labor & Employment Law

Economy Loses 125,000 Jobs in June

By James Parks

For the first time in six months, the economy lost jobs in June. The 125,000 job loss was due in part to a drop in the number of temporary employees working on Census 2010. Private-sector job growth remained anemic, with only 83,000 jobs added last month, according to a report released this morning by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Overall, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.5 percent, down from 9.7 percent in May. That was mainly because some 652,000 people gave up looking for work. Altogether, some 14.6 million Americans were jobless.

 The number of people who are underemployed, which includes those who are too discouraged to look for work or are working part time out of economic necessity, dropped slightly to 16.5 percent in June, down from 16.6 percent in May, and some  26 million U.S. workers are without jobs or full-time work.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the June figures should be a wake-up call to Republicans in Congress ?who have refused to act to create jobs, stop layoffs and help the jobless.”

Republicans stubbornly refuse to recognize that the private sector?s job-creating machine is dead in the water, creating only 83,000  jobs last month.

 Every effort to dig us out of our 10.5 million jobs hole is being stymied by nothing more than excuses about the deficit. This is not to say the federal budget doesn?t need attention?it does, but over the long -term. Right now we have an immediate jobs crisis that must be addressed immediately. And unless we do address it soon, we?ll only make the nation?s economic conditions worse.

Writing today on Huffington Post, Trumka  adds:

?we need a job-centered approach to stabilizing the national debt and strengthening the economy.

That means providing the economic stimulus needed to erase our jobs deficit and prevent deeper recession. It means investing in the 21st century infrastructure necessary to support stronger economic growth in the long term. And it means insisting that Wall Street and the small minority of Americans who benefited most from the economic policies of the past 30 years pay their fair share for rebuilding the new economy.

Click here to read the Huffington Post column ?Jobs Should Come First.?  

In the private sector, manufacturing added 9,000 jobs; temporary service jobs, 21,000; and mining, 6,000. Construction jobs declined by 22,000. The June unemployment rate for black workers improved slightly to 15.4 percent and was 8.6 percent for white workers.

Scott Paul, director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), says at this rate it will take decades to regain the losses in manufacturing since the recession began.

Unless Congress and the administration take aggressive steps to spur job creation, particularly in manufacturing, the recession will linger in communities all over the nation.  And that’s bad news for lawmakers who are facing the voters in November. It’s clear what Congress should do next: focus on a national manufacturing strategy and provide a level playing field for our workers and businesses by ending China’s mercantilism, including its ongoing currency manipulation.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 02, 2010 (boomark / email).