Unemployment Rate Rises To 9.2 Percent

The U.S. economy added only 18,000 jobs in June and the nation’s unemployment ticked up another tenth of a point to 9.2 percent, the government reported Friday.

Further bad news from the latest jobs report: the government revised its payroll data for the previous two months to show that 44,000 fewer jobs were created in April and May than had been previously thought.

The unemployment rate increased for the third straight month, reaching its highest level since December 2010. There are more than 14 million Americans who are looking for work but can’t find a job.

Hiring by the private sector, meanwhile, was the weakest since May 2010.

Both the jobless rate and the number of jobs created in June failed to match analysts' predictions. According to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires, economists had expected employers to add 125,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to remain steady at 9.1 percent.

The Wall Street Journal with some context:

The choppy two-year-old recovery is proving to be one of the worst since the 1930s. It has been too slow to make up for all the jobs lost after the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. With little scope left for policy to help, President Barack Obama is likely to confront the highest unemployment rate of any postwar incumbent when he seeks re-election in the fall of 2012.

Friday's report showed private-sector employers, which account for about 70% of the work force, added 57,000 jobs in June, down from 73,000 in May. The weakness was broad-based.