Double-digit jobless rate hits 4 states
Four states — California, South Carolina, Michigan and Rhode Island — registered unemployment rates above 10 percent in January, and some believe the national rate will hit double digits by year’s end.
In December, only Michigan had a double-digit jobless rate, 10.6 percent.
Employers increasingly are laying off workers, holding hours down and freezing or cutting pay as the recession eats into sales and profits.
Some economists now predict the U.S. unemployment rate will hit 10 percent by year-end, and peak at 11 percent or higher by the middle of 2010. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent in February, the highest in more than 25 years.
Michigan’s jobless rate jumped to 11.6 percent in January, the highest in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics quick payday loans.
The second-highest jobless rate was South Carolina at 10.4 percent. Rhode Island was next at 10.3 percent, which marked an all-time high for the state in federal records dating to 1976.
California’s unemployment rate jumped to 10.1 percent in January from 8.7 percent in December, as jobs disappeared in the construction, finance and retail industries.
Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rate increases.
Louisiana was the only state to record a monthly drop. Its unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent in January from 5.5 percent in December.
Filed under: finance by Fred