US unemployment on the rise again

US economic recovery on a downturn as unemployment
claims rose in July



Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137631§ionid=3510203


The US Labor Department has reported another rise in new claims for unemployment for the preceding week, underlining a persistently weak labor market.

The new figures, released Thursday is reflective of a slow growth in the American labor market, posing a challenge to the fragile economic recovery from its greatest downturn since the Great Depression.

Initial demand for US unemployment benefits rose 19,000 to 479,000, compared to market speculation of a drop to 455,000.

”While these numbers are volatile, we haven't really made progress in the labor market and that's kind of troubling when you think about the broader economic recovery,” said Andrew Gledhill, an economist at Moody's Economy.com.

"For the recovery to turn into a self-sustaining expansion, we need people to have wage income coming in and until that happens, we are still in a tenuous position," Gledhill added, quoted by Reuters.

The US government's monthly employment report, due on Friday, is expected to show that nonfarm payrolls fell 65,000 in July after waning 125,000 in June.

Private-sector payrolls are expected to rise a mere 90,000 and the unemployment rate is anticipated to rise to 9.6 percent from last month's 9.5 percent.

This month's economic figures will likely spell trouble for President Barack Obama's Democratic Party allies who face mid-term elections in November and risk losing their majority and control in the US Congress.

Obama's popularity has suffered a great deal as a result of the slow economic recovery in the US as well as a number of other issues, such as his inadequate response to BP's oil spill disaster and the failure to deliver on his repeated pledges of 'change' that helped him win the presidential election in 2008