Jumping June job losses

Grim economic news today folks. In June the estimated number of job losses was 467,000. This number compared to economists’ estimates of 350,000 to be lost. This increase in unemployment pushed the overall unemployment rate up to 9.5% – the highest level since August of 1983. Not surprisingly this figure is roiling the financial markets. The reason is that consumer spending makes up such a high percentage of GDP. But if consumers don’t have jobs then they have no money to spend.

This economic statistic is evidence that the economic recovery is stalling a bit. I will be paying close attention to the news at both the macro economic level and the micro economic level of individual business news to get a better indication of where we are at in an economic recovery.

Jason