U.S. Job losses of 651,000 in February 2009

Morguefile.com

 The U.S  Department of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, March 6, 2009 that 651,000 jobs were lost in February.  Workers across the nation in every sector of the economy are being laid off as employers reduce costs by cutting payrolls and their capital investments.

The losses during December 2008 were revised upward to 681,000 jobs and in January 2009,  655,000 jobs were lost. This brings the unemployment rate up to 8.1 percent with a total of 4.4 millions jobs lost since the recession began. Some economists believe unemployment could reach 9 to 10 percent. February is the fourth month that more than 500,000 jobs were lost including:

• Retailers cut 39,500 jobs
• Construction industry cut 104,000 jobs
• Manufacturing cut 168,000 jobs.

The jobless rate for people with bachelor's degrees or beyond is 4.1 percent, compared with 8.3% for people with less education and 12.6 percent for those who did not completed high school.

It appears that with a few exceptions such as Louisiana, the jobs losses are economy and industry wide, reflecting the severity and the breath of the job losses.