WASHINGTON — Unemployment rose to a 14-year high of 6.5% in October, as businesses cut 240,000 non-farm jobs, the Department of Labor reported today.
The economy has lost 1.2 million jobs this year.
October's job losses represented a dramatic increase from the 159,000 losses in September. It was the 10th consecutive month of job losses.
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The number of persons unemployed in October was 10.1 million, up from 9.5 million the previous month. During the past year, the number of unemployed has increased by 2.8 million and the unemployment rate has grown by 1.7%.
Wage growth also remained sluggish, Average hourly earnings grew 4 cents, compared with 3 cents in September.
As in September, employment increased in education, government, health care and mining while it decreased in manufacturing, construction, and professional and business services.
Among the largest areas of job losses were: manufacturing, construction, and retail, which lost 90,000, 49,000, and 38,000 jobs, respectively.
The number of people who worked part time out of necessity–because they could not find full-time–rose by 645,000 to 6.7 million, a 2.3 million increase in the last 12 months.
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