US unemployment hits highest rate since 1983

06 March 2009 22:29  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Another 651,000 US jobs were lost in February, raising the unemployment rate to the highest level in 26 years to 8.1% from 7.6%, the US Labor Department said on Friday.

The unemployment rate rose to 8.1% in February from 7.6% in January, the Labor Department said.

Also,161,000 more jobs were lost in January and December than previously reported.

A total of 12.5m US workers were unemployed in February, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the recession officially began in December 2007, more than 4.4m workers have lost their jobs, the agency reported.

About 3m US workers have been unemployed for a period of six months or longer, contributing to the highest unemployment rates since December 1983.

The US manufacturing and construction sectors continued to show steep job losses. About 168,000 jobs were lost in the manufacturing industry in February; 104,000 construction jobs were lost.

The non-durable goods segment of the manufacturing sector experienced a loss of 36,000 jobs from January to February.

Losses in plastics and rubber products manufacturing was the largest contributor to that number with 10,200 lost jobs, bringing the total number of workers in the industry down to 669,000 in February from 680,100 in January's revised numbers.

About 1,900 jobs were lost in the chemical industry from January to February, bringing the total number of chemical workers down to an estimated 831,700, compared with in January.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis stressed in a statement that the Obama administration was working to soften the blow of these job losses through investments from the stimulus package.

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By: Mickey McCarter
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