Unemployment Takes Its Biggest Jump Since 1986
In what one economist has called the "strongest evidence yet" that the U.S. is in recession, the country's jobless rate has grown 0.5% since April, the largest monthly jump in more than 20 years. The unemployment rate has been steadily rising this year, with 324,000 jobs lost since January.
In what one economist has called the “strongest evidence yet” that the U.S. is in recession, the country’s jobless rate has grown 0.5% since April, the largest monthly jump in more than 20 years. The unemployment rate has been steadily rising this year, with 324,000 jobs lost since January.
TRUTHDIG’S JOURNALISM REMAINS CLEARThe Los Angeles Times:
The nation’s unemployment rate took a sharp turn for the worse in May, jumping to 5.5% from 5% a month earlier — the largest one-month increase in more than two decades and a further sign that the ailing economy is not yet on the mend.
Altogether, the economy lost 49,000 jobs in May and 324,000 jobs since the beginning of the year — five straight months of contraction, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The economy must create about 100,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with population growth.
Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, said the report was “the strongest evidence yet that the economic expansion has slipped into a recession of uncertain depth and duration.”
“The situation is even worse than this jump indicates,” Morici said. “A large number of adults have left the labor force in recent years. Factoring in the decline in the number of adults participating in the labor force, the unemployment rate is closer to 7%.”
The storytellers of chaos tried to manipulate the political and media narrative in 2025, but independent journalism exposed what they tried to hide. When you read Truthdig, you see through the illusion.
Support Independent Journalism.
Interview
Economic historian Michael Hudson on the origins of timekeeping, the long-lost practice of forgiving debt and his collaborations with the late David Graeber.
Business & Economy
Unchecked economic growth is threatening the capacity of earth to support life, and certainly healthy lives.
The celebrated economist and author, who died at 83 this week, exposed the perils of Reaganomics—and predicted Trump’s rise.
Economist Robert Pollin answers key questions about the two senators' approaches to health care as Warren beings to carve her own path.
Central bankers are proposing a radical economic reset that would shift even more power from governments to themselves.
America is hurtling toward a series of catastrophic debt crises. An ancient Mesopotamian civilization could offer the solution.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.