June Unemployment Data

The June unemployment numbers are in and they're bad.  Although May gave some hope because the job losses had begun to slow down, they picked again in June.  The overall trend the last three months is still an improvement over the previous period, but the job situation will clearly remain bleak for a while. Among the low-lights:

• The overall unemployment rate is now 9.5% (up from 9.4%)
• Job losses in June were 467,000 (up from 322,000 in May)
• The average workweek is 33 hours, the lowest since it began to be tracked in 1964
• Average hourly wages have gone up 2.7% over the last year, but weekly earnings have only gone up 1% (see previous bullet point for part of the explanation).
• Underemployment rate is 16.5%
• Average length of unemployment is 24.5 weeks, the lowest since it began to be tracked in 1948
• New unemployment benefit claims declined by 16,000 in June

-JH