US cuts jobs for 6th month, unemployment 5.5 per cent
US employers cut workers from their payrolls for the sixth straight month last month for the country's longest losing streak since 2002, while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 per cent, government data showed. The Labour Department said 62,000...
US employers cut workers from their payrolls for the sixth straight month last month for the country's longest losing streak since 2002, while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 per cent, government data showed. The Labour Department said 62,000 jobs were lost from non-farm payrolls last month, bringing losses for the year so far to 438,000 as a collapse in the housing market chilled growth.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the unemployment rate to edge down to 5.4 per cent. Payrolls were forecast to shed 60,000 jobs last month versus a revised 62,000 loss in May, initially estimated as a 49,000 fall.
April was also revised lower, taking combined April and May US job losses 129,000, or 52,000 more than previously thought.