As has been the case since January 2008, non-farm employment decreased over the past month. The employment decrease (354k), however, was far less steep than it has been for the past few months and the lowest decrease since September 2008.
The unemployment rate, on the other hand, increased slightly more than it has during the past few months to 9.4, the highest unemployment rate in 26 years.
The fact that we see substantial increases in the unemployment rate yet moderate job losses reflects the fact that a large number of people joined the workforce (i.e. started actively looking work) over the past month. This may reflect the fact that more and more households are facing credit constraints.
For more information/opinions/analyses, look here, here, here and here.
A couple of quick notes I thought were worth pointing out:
1) Sectors which shed the most jobs include construction, manufacturing, and professional and business services, whereas education and health services saw an increase. As the NYT article above points out, the manufacturing situation will undoubtedly only get more dreary in the coming months with GM falling apart.
2) Regional variation in unemployment rates is high.
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