US Unemployment Reaches 16 Year High
February 6, 2009
Today’s release of the latest Non Farm Payrolls reading highlighted that a total of 598,000 jobs were shed during the month of January. This marks the highest monthly number of job losses in 34 years and resulted in the unemployment rate jumping up to 7.6%, the highest level in 16 years. The manufacturing sector was the hardest hit as 207,000 were haemorrhaged a 26 year high. In total 3.6 million jobs have now been lost since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. Despite the higher than expected job losses, the US Dollar saw little reaction as it appears that the market has become desensitised to shock economic releases.