| July 2, 2009 Unemployment rate at highest point in quarter-century
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(NECN/ABC) - The U.S. economy lost more jobs than expected in June, and that sent the unemployment rate to its highest point in a quarter-century. 14.7 million people were out of work last month.
The month of June proved that the road to economic recovery continues to be long and bumpy. 467,000 Americans lost their jobs. The unemployment rate hit 9 and a half per cent, the highest in 26 years. Since the recession began in December of 2007, 6 and a half million jobs have been cut.
"We're still seeing the numbers of jobs lost, the unemployment rate rising," said Charles Herman of the ABC News Business Unit. People are struggling. This will prevent the economy from rebounding much faster."
U.S. stocks opened lower after the grim jobs report revealed that pulling out of recession may be slower, but there is some good news: The health care industry continues to grow, with 21 thousand people hired each month since the beginning of the year. There's also the pace of job losses, which has slowed since the period between December and February, when 700,00 jobs were lost each month.
Still, jobs losses are political dynamite for this administration that has bet economic recovery on the nearly trillion dollar stimulus that was sold as a jobs creation measure.
"I think that the public rightly, as the president will be, rightly anxious until we see job creation," said Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary. "Not job loss, positive
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