BLS Gives Update on State of Employment: Unemployment Rises Again

Posted by • May 8th, 2009 • 3 Comments

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the worst of job cuts may be over due to a productive first quarter and a lower number of people filing for unemployment. But US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) latest monthly report shows that we are not out of the woods yet. 

According to today’s BLS report, unemployment rate rose from 8.5 percent in March to 8.9 percent in April, a 25-year high. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been lost. In April, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major private-sector industries. 

Here are some additional highlights of this month’s report: 

  • As the Huffington Post comments, the median number of weeks people are unemployed is high, currently standing at 11.2 weeks.
  • The number of unemployed persons increased by 563,000 to 13.7 million in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent. (Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 6.0 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 3.9 percentage points.)
  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 498,000 to 3.7 million over the month and has risen by 2.4 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.

However, economists like Jan Hatzius, the chief economist at Goldman Sachs, said that the report was “somewhat better” than expected. And, according to CNBC’s Erin Burnett, “Not reaching the 600,000 jobs lost is important psychologically, and it could be an indicator of a slowing in the recession, since jobs are the last thing to recover.” 

As we continue to weather the economic recession, check out some useful and practical advice from Glassdoor’s Career and Workplace Expert Rusty Rueff, who offers up tips for those who have just been laid off and job seekers:

In addition, Rusty offers employers suggestions on way to strengthen the internal workings of your team through this budget-conscious time: Employer’s Listen Up: Communication is like Cash 

Are you looking for a job? Try Glassdoor’s new interview questions and reviews section to create a personalized study guide for your next interview. With this new section, you can get specific insights on what it’s like to interview at a specific company for a specific job – all for free. 

Let us know how your hunt for a job is going and/or what it’s like to work at your company.

The Glassdoor Team is a small yet seasoned group of individuals looking to provide greater transparency into one of the most important aspects of our lives – our jobs. Contributions to the blog are designed to present a unique perspective on current events, offer commentary on the inside workings on specific jobs at a multitude of companies, and provide details on the latest happenings from within Glassdoor.

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  • http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/how-to-prepare-for-a-job-interview/ How to Prepare for a Job Interview | Glassdoor.com Blog

    [...] unemployment numbers continuing to rise, the value of job interview resources also climbs. Here is a quick round [...]

  • susanmoore

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rtghdfhgdfh-Setrsghfd/100000558830099 Rtghdfhgdfh Setrsghfd

    Just recently, the result regarding unemployment rate for November have been released, and it turns out that unemployment actually went down last month, falling from 10.2 percent in October, but down to 10 percent in November. I hope this will a good start so that we can totally overcome the crisis we have right now. Little by little we can do it!