The US unemployment rate shot up in June to a fresh nine-year high while the economy lost 30,000 jobs, the government said today in a gloomy report on the labour market.
The jobless rate climbed to 6.4 per cent last month from May's 6.1 per cent, the Labor Department said, a much-worse reading than the 6.2 per cent forecast by US economists in a Reuters survey. The rate reached the highest level since a matching 6.4 per cent in April 1994.
The key data may call into question hopes that have been building in the stock market that the US economy is set for a rebound. Worried about the lacklustre state of the economy, the Federal Reserve last week cut short-term interest rates to 1 per cent.
Among the sectors that contributed to the jobs decline were manufacturing, which fell 56,000, and information industries, which shed 10,000 jobs.
Across the economy, the length of the average work week was unchanged at 33.7 hours. Factory hours were also steady at 40.2 hours, while overtime remained at four hours. Lack of growth in the working week is not encouraging for the future.