January 2009 Employment Situation — 2009-02-06

Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply in January (-598,000) and the unem- ployment rate rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employment has declined by 3.6 million since the start of the recession in December 2007; about one- half of this decline occurred in the past 3 months. In January, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors. Both the number of unemployed persons (11.6 million) and the unemployment rate (7.6 percent) rose in January. Over the past 12 months, the number of un- employed persons has increased by 4.1 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.7 percentage points. (See table A-1.) The unemployment rate continued to trend upward in January for adult men (7.6 percent), adult women (6.2 percent), whites (6.9 percent), blacks (12.6 percent), and Hispanics (9.7 percent). The jobless rate for teenagers was un- changed at 20.8 percent.