Chems, plastics hit as US unemployment jumps to 7.2%

09 January 2009 14:12  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--US job losses accelerated in December - including sharp losses in chemicals and plastics - and the unemployment rate shot up to 7.2% from November’s 6.8%, the Labor Department said on Friday.

The unemployment rate of 7.2% in December is the highest in 15 years and is expected to further aggravate the nation’s worsening recession. 

As more workers lose jobs, consumer spending falls - among those worried about their jobs as well as for those out of work - and further weakens demand, driving still more layoffs.

The department said US employment fell by 524,000 jobs in December, almost as bad as the 533,000 job losses recorded in November.

Job losses have totaled 1.9m over the last four months of 2008, the department added.

“In December, job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors,” the department’s employment situation summary said.

Among the job losses were a 2.8% decline in chemical sector jobs in December compared with November and a sharp 7.4% fall in employment in the plastics and rubber industry, according to the Labor Department.

Compared to December 2007, the chemicals sector workforce has declined by 1.8% to some 847,000 employees. A year earlier there were 862,700 personnel in chemical industry jobs.

In plastics and rubber sector employment, the workforce is down by 6.9% from a year ago, according to the department, falling to 692,000 workers in December 2008 from 743,300 employees in December a year earlier.

Overall, the department said that the number of jobless in the US at the end of 2008 was 11.1m.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed has increased by 3.6m and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.3 percentage points.

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By: Joe Kamalick
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