Unemployment rates for February; How bad is it?

Businessweek's report on the release of unemployment data.

"The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 8.1% as the economy lost 651,000 jobs in February, the Labor Dept. reported on Mar. 6. While the report showed the deepening recession was continuing to batter the nation's wage earners, the numbers were lower than some of the most dire predictions. The January unemployment rate was 7.6%.

The government also revised upward the number of jobs shed by the economy in December and January, meaning that the jobs picture has been worse than the original data indicated. Stock markets gained on the report, with the Dow Jones Industrial index rising more than 1.5% in morning trading before falling back.

"Job losses were large and widespread across all major industry sectors," the Labor Dept. said in a news release, noting that payroll employment has declined by 2.6 million positions over the past four months. The largest job losses came in professional and business services, manufacturing, and construction. Health care, one of the few bright spots in the employment sector, had a net gain of 27,000 jobs." - By Phil Mintz and Peter Coy (businessweek.com)


8.1% unemployed of the total work force of United States, does that sound bad? Of course it is considering the level it was before, and this higher level unemployment make a clear comparison to days of 1930s. The important part about this is, not all the job categories suffer the same level of unemployment rates. But on average it does look a dark image on countries unemployment.

"If part-time workers who can't find full-time jobs are counted in, along with those who have simply given up looking, the rate would be 14.8 percent, the highest in records going back to 1994." - By Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer

More statistical data from the same above mentioned article (as of February 2009);
- bachelor's degrees or higher : 4.1%
- w/o high school diploma : 12.6%
- African Americans : 13.4%
- Hispanic : 10.9%

It definitely look ugly for the lower educated job seekers-the labor jobs. Reason being companies most unable to afford the pay for their workers, although they are the major part of their work-force. On the other hand recruiters have also cut down hiring new undergraduate by 22% (according to businessweek). Not necessarily the people with bachelor's degree or higher possess a greater chance in the economy.