January job losses reach 598K

The United States shed 598,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate rose to 7.6% from 7.2%, signaling a continued weakening in the job market, the Department of Labor announced today. The number of unemployed people is now estimated at 11.6 million. Since the recession began in December 2007, the nation has lost 3.6 million jobs, with about half of that occurring in the last three months, according to the Labor Department. The January job losses occurred across sectors, but the largest cuts were in manufacturing, which lost 207,000 jobs, and construction, which shed 111,000 jobs. Since the start of the recession, the services sector has lost 1.8 million jobs. Temporary help agencies lost 76,000 jobs; retail trade shed 45,000; transportation and warehousing lost 44,000 combined; financial services lost 42,000; wholesale trade lost 31,000, and professional and technical services lost 29,000 jobs. Only health care and private education added jobs last month with 19,000 and 33,000, respectively.