subject: Unemployment Spikes In August In 27 Usa States [print this page] Unemployment has spiked in August in 27 states of USA - squashing hopes of people having money in their pockets to spend and give a kick to the economy. Over half the states saw this increase - the largest since the last six months according to the Labor Department. However it dropped in 13 states and remained unchanged in Washington D.C. and 10 other states. It is worse in comparison to July where the rate had gone up in 14 states and dropped in 18 states.
According to the report in some parts of the country the pace of recovery is faster than in others. The states in the west are harassed by a weak housing market and are seeing jobs vanish fast. In the northeastern part of the country there are job gains in certain sections like hotels and eateries as well as finance.
Last August saw Arizona, California, Colorado and Nevada lose jobs last August causing unemployment numbers to increase. The unemployment rate is lower in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. California has been losing jobs since the last four months while it is the seventh consecutive month that Massachusetts has gained jobs.
The report by the Labor Department came a day following the declaration by a body of economists (non-profit) that this recession that officially ended last June 2009 was the longest and the most intense in depth since the World War II. But even after 15 months the rate of unemployment is agonizingly high at 9.6%.
The stark figures do not illustrate the full picture - there are sharp differences. In the northeastern part of the country the rate of unemployment has not changed last August - it is the same at 8.8% since the previous one year. In the western region however the unemployment rate has gone up to 10.8% from last year's 10.5%.
Steve Cochrane of Moody's Analytics said referring to the western states that "nothing really gets better until the housing market stabilizes". The depression in the housing segment causes loss of jobs for construction employees, the realtors and others directly linked with this segment.
It also indirectly impacts on the entire economy of the area. The house owners who have lost their equity and are underwater are not likely to spend money on repairing their houses, adding fixtures or adding to the interior decoration with new furniture and the like.
According to CoreLogic by the end of June about 70% of the house owners were upside down in Nevada with the worth of their property being less than their loans.
