US unemployment rises

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Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 05 Apr 2002 15:37
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Unemployment in the United States is continuing to rise, and in March reached a rate of 5.7 per cent.

Analysts were understandably disappointed by the figures. Delos Smith, analyst at the Conference Board in New York said: "It certainly suggests we are going to have a relatively slow expansion at this moment."

However, the rise in the unemployment rate coincided with news signalling that the US economy is recovering. During March, 58,000 new jobs were created in the US outside the agricultural sector. The March rise in non-farm payrolls was a much sharper rise than analysts had expected.

"The data for March and for February provide a marked contrast to the average monthly job losses of 144,000 that prevailed from March 2001 through January 2002," said Lois Orr, acting commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The service sector accounted for the bulk of the new jobs, though many of them were with temporary work agencies. Many of the new jobs were with government agencies rather than with companies in the private sector.

Employment in the construction and manufacturing sectors continued to slip, but the good news, analysts said, was that industry was losing jobs more slowly than in recent months.