Pace of Layoffs Slows, But Jobless Rate Nears 9%

The Labor Department numbers were released on Friday, and showed that companies are still very cautious and are still willing to lay off people. While not nearly as large as the 620,000 job cuts that economists were expecting, the unemployment rate overall rose from 8.5% in March, and that matched forecasts.

Michael T. Darda, chief economist at the research and trading firm MKM Partners said:

“The labor market is still very weak, but it looks like the most intense spate of weakness is probably behind us. Less bad is always a prelude to good. It’s going to take some time for this economy to get back on its feet, but we might be closer to the recession ending.”

Thing is, the real unemployment rate is much higher. If you factor in those who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work, the unemployment rate would have been 15.8% in April, the highest dating back to 1994. The total number of unemployed now stands at 13.7 million, up from 13.2 million in March.