It’s hard not to audibly gasp when you look at the latest jobs report. The headline numbers are staggering -- unemployment hit a 25-year high of 8.1 percent last month with employers slashing 651,000 jobs.
And if you want more superlatives we’ve got them. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has shed 4.4 million jobs, with more than half purged in the last four months alone.
But those are the headlines. It’s always a good idea to peel back the layers and look a little deeper. Here is a breakdown of where the job losses were as well as which sectors were adding jobs. Worst hit was manufacturing and professional services. And as they have in the past, health services and government added the most jobs.
Total change in non-farm payroll = - 651,000
- Private Sector = - 660,000
- Natural Resources & Mining = - 4,000
- Construction = - 104,000
- Manufacturing = - 168,000
- Durable goods = - 132,000
- Non-durable goods = - 36,000
- Services = - 375,000
- Wholesale Trade = - 37,000
- Retail Trade = - 39,500
- Transportation = - 48,900
- Utilities = + 1,100
- Information & Media = - 15,000
- Financial Svcs & Real Estate = - 44,000
- Professional & Business Svcs = - 180,000
- Education = - 4,200
- Health Svcs = + 30,400
- Leisure = - 33,000
- Government = +9,000
Total change in non-farm payroll = - 651,000
First The Bad News
Companies struggling with falling revenues and tight profit margins are slashing jobs in huge numbers, a step that is forcing households to further scale back spending, creating a vicious cycle for the bleeding economy.
