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April 2012 unemployment rate drops to 8.1%
Only 115,000 new jobs were added last month.
Fri, May 04 2012 at 11:44 AM
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Photo: AKZOphoto/Flickr
The unemployment rate has dropped yet again. According to this morning’s Department of Labor report, the April 2012 unemployment rate now sits at 8.1 percent. Unfortunately, this is due to more people dropping out of the job market instead of a big hiring spree. Only 115,000 new jobs were added last month.
There are still more than five million American workers that have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer. The number of workers employed part-time for economic reasons, including those that can’t find full-time work even though they want it, also remained relatively unchanged at 7.9 million.
Job growth was seen in several sectors including:
- Retail trade employment +29,000
- Food services and drinking establishments +20,000
- Ambulatory health care services +15,000
- Engineering services +7,000
- Computer systems design and related services +7,000
The April 2012 report also included revised figures for the previous two months. February 2012 unemployment figures were revised upward from 240,000 new jobs to 259,000 new jobs. March 2012 data was also revised upward, going from an initial report of 120,000 new jobs to an updated figure of 154,000 jobs.
While monthly job growth is better than job losses, this spring economic slowdown is at the very least a little concerning.
Are you concerned about the jobless situation?
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just concerned if it will be enough to prevent Obama from getting reelected....that would be horrendous....if we could only get Congress to stop gutting everything he is trying to do....now he needs to show over the next few months what can be done about jobs....so many businesses not hiring so that they can see him get out of office first....fear of overregulation and wouldn't want profits to decline