Saturday, March 28, 2009

US: Unemployment hits double digits in seven states

By Barry Grey 28 March 2009

Three more states in the US recorded jobless rates of more than 10 percent in February, bringing the total thus far to seven, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. Nevada (10.1 percent), North Carolina (10.7 percent) and Oregon (10.8 percent) last month joined the four other states that had previously soared above 10 percent. Michigan, at 12 percent, remained the state with the highest unemployment rate, followed by South Carolina at 11 percent and Oregon at 10.8 percent. California (10.5 percent) and Rhode Island (10.5 percent) are the other states with double-digit unemployment.

The new data on state jobless levels followed the Labor Department's report on initial jobless claims for the past week, released Thursday, which showed a higher-than-expected increase to a seasonally adjusted figure of 652,000, up from the previous week's figure of 644,000. The total number of people claiming benefits for more than a week jumped 122,000 to 5.56 million, exceeding analysts' projections of 5.48 million and marking the highest level since records began in 1967. The level of continuing jobless claims set a record for the ninth consecutive week.

To read more, visit the following link:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/jobl-m28.shtml

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