US jobless rate rises to 7.6%

American employers added 175,000 jobs in May,almost exactly the average monthly job growth over the last year,the Labor Department

Written by New York Times

New York | June 8, 2013 02:56 AM IST

1 min read

CATHERINE RAMPELL

American employers added 175,000 jobs in May,almost exactly the average monthly job growth over the last year,the Labor Department reported Friday,while the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6 per cent from 7.5 per cent in April.

Economists were relieved that the numbers werent worse,given a string of other disappointing data in recent weeks,but noted that recent job trends are nowhere close to bringing the US back to full employment. At the current pace of job growth,it would take nearly five years to get the economy back to the low unemployment rate it enjoyed when the recession officially began in December 2007.

Conrad DeQuadros,senior economist at RDQ Economics,said,Its certainly not strong enough to get the Fed to make any significant changes at its meeting in June.

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