Small Business Finance News
Unemployment Rate Loses 0.1 Percentage Point
Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 4/1/2011
Statistics from the U.S. Labor Department reveal that the economy added more than 200,000 new jobs last month.
Rounding out the week's surveys and studies reporting small business news, on Friday the U.S. Labor Department released the newest employment figures.
In March, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent - down from 8.9 percent in February - adding 216,000 new jobs. The report also noted that job gains were primarily made in sectors including professional and business services, healthcare, leisure and hospitality and mining.
The rate exceeded economists' expectations, such as those at CNN Money who predicted that the economy would see a gain of 180,000 new jobs last month.
However, as the source pointed out, even with the decline, it will still be some time before the economy recoups the 8.7 million jobs it lost as a result of the recession.
"Job growth still isn't strong enough to bring the unemployment rate down rapidly," Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, told CNN Money. "If the rate is only falling by 0.1% each month, it would take another three and a half years to get back down to the pre-recession level."
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