(Bloomberg) -- The pace of U.S. job losses slowed in August while the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high, signaling the recovery from recession will be slow to develop.
Employers cut payrolls by 216,000, fewer than forecast, after a 276,000 drop in July, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 9.7 percent; the so- called underemployment rate -- which includes part-time workers who'd prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- reached a record 16.8 percent.
Today's figures stoke concern that the recovery forecast to take hold in the second half of the year won't prompt a turnaround in the job market until 2010. With the ranks of long- term unemployed nearing 5 million, workers are at risk of losing skills, making it even tougher for them to eventually find work.
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