WASHINGTON — The government report Thursday that the nation's unemployment picture took an unexpectedly sharp turn for the worse after four straight months of moderately encouraging news was a sobering jolt to hopes that the economy might gradually be getting back on track.
The overall unemployment rate edged up just a notch, to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent in June, but the loss of 467,000 payroll jobs made it clear that the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression was far from over - at least for American workers.
And the size of the payroll loss was unexpected and reversed a four-month trend in which the size of the loss had been shrinking from the January peak of 741,000 jobs eliminated.
The overall unemployment rate edged up just a notch, to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent in June, but the loss of 467,000 payroll jobs made it clear that the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression was far from over - at least for American workers.
And the size of the payroll loss was unexpected and reversed a four-month trend in which the size of the loss had been shrinking from the January peak of 741,000 jobs eliminated.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the ranks of the unemployed have almost doubled to 14.7 million, and nonfarm employers have eliminated 6.5 million jobs.
"This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all the jobs growth from the previous business cycle," said EPI economist Heidi Shierholz.
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