Unemployment Dips To 9.7%; Recession Cost 8.4 Million Jobs

New numbers show unemployment down from 10% to 9.7%. And there is still a long way to go.

That may seem like good news, now that the unemployment rate is below 10 percent for the first time in months. But, as The Associated Press reports, the Labor Department still “says the Great Recession has eliminated 8.4 million jobs. That’s the most of any recession since World War II as a proportion of total payrolls.”

The Times’s Javier Hernandez writes that, the newest numbers notwithstanding, there is still concern that economic recovery “would be slow to come.”

“As the broader economy gains steam and crucial sectors like manufacturing spring back to life, analysts say the recovery appears to be intact. But the nation’s stubbornly high unemployment rate remains a persistent thorn in the side of optimists, and economists expect the situation to worsen before it gets better,” Mr. Hernandez wrote.

In fact, Hernandez notes, some economists predict unemployment could rise to 11% by the end of the year.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.