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Payrolls fell by 539,000, after a 699,000 loss in March, while the unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent, the highest level since 1983, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The Commerce Department separately said that wholesalers reduced their supply of unsold goods for a seventh month in March.
The jobless rate may rise to 9.5 percent by year-end, economists said in an April Bloomberg survey. Tests run by the government to determine whether 19 of the largest U.S. banks had enough capital to withstand deterioration in the economy used an “adverse scenario” that included an average unemployment rate of 8.9 percent in 2009 and 10.3 percent next year. |
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