Unemployment hits highest rate since 1983

The government issued its February unemployment report on Friday, indicating that the jobless rate for the month has hit a quarter-century high of 8.1%

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - The unemployment report for February has been published. While experts had forecast a loss of 650,000 jobs for the month, the actual rate of 8.1% represents a loss of 651,000 more jobs. We have now hit the highest unemployment rate since 1983 and it is expected to go higher.

One year ago unemployment was at 4.8%. The year 2008 saw a net loss of over 4 million jobs and the trend has not yet been reversed, with and additional 655,000 less jobs at the end of January, 2009.

In an interview with CNN, Tig Gilliam, chief executive of Adecco Group North America, a unit of the world's largest employment firm, stated, "It's a dismal report. We thought we'd have another month like this, and I think we have a couple of more coming. We've got a lot of layoffs being announced that haven't been implemented."

Gilliam said he expects the unemployment rate to rise to 9% within the next few months.

"This is what falling off a cliff looks like," Larry Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute told McClatchy News. Mishel looked at trends in the first 14 months of past recessions and concluded that "we've seen the sharpest decline in employment and the sharpest decline in private sector hours worked _ a 5.5 percent decline _ than in any recession in 50 years."

President Obama mentioned the job loss rate in his weekly address on Saturday morning, again maintaining that his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will establish 3.5 million more jobs over the next two years in addition to providing stronger unemployment benefits and continued healthcare coverage.

JOBS REPORT WINNERS AND LOSERS:

Losers:
- The professional and business services sector led the job losers, shedding a whopping 180,000 jobs.
- Manufacturers fared little better, dropping 168,000 jobs.
- Construction continued its deep slump, as builders and contractors shaved another 104,000 jobs.
- Finance, which includes real estate and banking, rid itself of 44,000 employees as bank failures, mergers, the housing slump and financial sector turmoil continue.
- Retail sector employment fell by 40,000.

Winners:
- Education and health care, which added 27,000 jobs.
- Government, which is up by 9,000 jobs.

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