SHAFAQNA (Shia News Association) — The official US unemployment rate has hit 8.2 percent, although the real figure is 14.8 percent when factoring in the jobless people who have given up looking for work.
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the data for the official unemployment rate in May, which showed that the US only managed to create 69,000 new jobs in the month, missing the goal of 158,000 by a wide margin.
"It's painfully obvious the economic recovery in the US isn't just slowing down, it's pulling up the emergency brake. And, lack of job creation isn't the only critical concern. Wages/Income is sharply lower," CNBC quoted BlackBay Group Managing Principal Todd Schoenberger as saying.
If the US unemployment rate is calculated to include discouraged workers, it has risen 0.3 percent, from 14.5 percent in April to 14.8 percent in May.
The long-term unemployment rate has also risen sharply, with the number of people unemployed for at least 27 weeks jumping from 5.1 to 5.4 million and the average period of unemployment increasing from 39.1 to 39.7 weeks.
The release of the unemployment data immediately affected markets in the US, which suffered their worst month in two years in May.
Crude oil prices dropped more than four percent but the price of gold rose. — www.shafaqna.com
