Market Scan
U.S. Jobless Rate Soars To 8.5%
Maurna Desmond, 04.03.09, 09:30 AM EDT
Maurna Desmond, 04.03.09, 09:30 AM EDT
More than 660,000 jobs were shed in March as unemployment figures hit 25-year high.
There was no spring thaw for jobs in March. The deepening recession has left 13.2 million Americans unemployed as weakness in the labor market further bruises the battered economy.
The government reported Friday that the U.S. economy shed 663,000 nonagricultural jobs in March, pushing the national unemployment rate to 8.5%, the highest level in 25 years, from 8.1% in February. The losses were in line with expectations, and average hourly earnings rose by 3.4% year over year.
Yahoo! BuzzThe Labor Department also revised the January payrolls figure to -741,000, from 655,000 jobs lost, while February was left unchanged at 651,000. A toxic mix of falling home prices, tanking stock portfolios and soured bets on Wall Street has left the U.S. and global economies in tatters.
The Obama administration has tried to stem the bleeding on several fronts, using trillions of taxpayer dollars to clean up the mortgage mess and unchoke seized-up credit markets. The $787.0 billion economic stimulus bill passed in February will not bolster business before summer but ultimately is seeking to create or salvage up to 4.0 million jobs.
Thrifty consumers have cut back on spending, particularly on large purchases over the last year. This in turn is forcing businesses to pare down, adding to job troubles. Meanwhile, the financial sector continues to reel from the subprime mortgage crisis it helped fuel as Treasury's efforts to fix the banks stall. Attempts by the Federal Reserve to stoke a slowing economy by bringing its borrowing rate down to virtually zero have yet to prove fruitful. However, different government-backed lending programs seem to be loosening constricted flows of credit.
Stock futures moved higher in spite of the bleak jobs data, while the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell slightly, to 2.81%, from 2.75% Thursday.
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