Larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs are cut in June. This drives the unemployment rate up to 9.5 percent.

In May 2009, the rate of unemployment for Central Florida reached 10.2%, the first time it has been in the double digits since 1976.

Faced with growing criticism that he is not doing enough to assist the ailing economy, President Barack Obama unveiled a plan to increase spending on public works projects and create or save up to 600,000 jobs this summer.

The past two days have brought promising data on the employment situation in the country. Both the weekly jobless claims data put out yesterday and the jobs report today suggest that the recession may be at an end.

Good news and bad news, with respect to the unemployment numbers for May released today by the U.S. Labor Department. First, the bad news: unemployment has reached 9.4%. Now, the good news: the pace of layoffs slowed, with employers cutting 345,000 jobs, the fewest since September.

For the first time in 20 weeks, the number of those still seeking unemployment benefits (as opposed to new claims) dropped, albeit slightly. This also broke a string of 17 consecutive weeks with record new highs in this number.

On Thursday, the Labor Department said the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped unexpectedly to a seasonally adjusted 623,000, from a revised figure of 636,000 in the previous week. It was below analysts' estimates of 635,000.

New figures released on Friday showed Russian unemployment continued to rise in April, increasing by 200,000 to 7.7 million, with 2.3 million officially registered as out of work, the Federal Statistics Service said.

The number of people filing first-time unemployment claims fell 12,000 last week to 631,000, according to a new report. This is good news for U.S. economy and for boosting confidence in investors.

Trending good news appears to not be something we're going to have happen, at least not soon. While last week's new jobless numbers were better than expected, this week's were worse than expected.

Showing that economists may be no better than weathermen at forecasting, the Labor Department figures for weekly jobless claims dropped 14,000 to 631,000 last week. Economists had predicted a rise.

While last week's jobless numbers for new claims showed improvement, this week's took an unexpectedly high jump, according to the Labor Department.