Unemployment Rate Remains Unchanged

In the United States, the employment picture seemed to remain unchanged, even though employers added a total of about 80,000 jobs to different areas around the nation. The unemployment rate for the nation as a whole was at 8.2 percent for the second month in a row, which is information that was released by the United States Labor Department. Businesses around the United States managed to add 84,000 jobs but the government sector actually cut around 4,000 positions. One economist, Jim O’Sullivan, believes that these numbers are fairly poor and are not so good for the economy, especially during a recovery phase. Many economists made predictions that there would have been at least 95,000 jobs created and the numbers are obviously much lower than the original predictions from several economists.

Between the two months, the employment picture basically remained unchanged. Between the span of April through June, the economy managed to add only about 75,000 jobs. While the outlook seemed dim, there were some reports that made people feel more optimistic, especially since a survey conducted by ADP showed that there was an increase in jobs available within the private sector during the month of June than there was in the previous months.

It is believed that these recent reports could decide whether or not President Barack Obama will be reelected this coming November, especially since people often shape their perception of the way the economy is and the way the recovery is going during the summer months. Because job growth is sluggish and the unemployment rate is still higher than it should be, it is possible that many people will want to vote in favor of Mitt Romney instead. Mitt Romney is a nominee in the race to become President of the United States.

During the first quarter, job growth was high, with about 226,000 jobs being created but during this second quarter, the growth has slowed down. There are some people, particularly economists, who believe that the warmer winter is the reason so many jobs were created during the winter months, especially jobs created within the construction sector. While these jobs were made available in the winter months, it has definitely caused a slowdown for the spring and summer months. In fact, during this quarter, the construction sector seems to be one of several sectors suffering the most, only having added a couple thousand jobs over the span of these few months, likely due to construction projects that were available during the winter because of the warmer weather.