U.S. economy sheds more jobs

U.S. employers cut their payrolls by 62,000 jobs in June, marking the sixth straight month of job losses for the weak U.S. economy.

The unemployment rate for June held steady at 5.5 per cent, the U.S. Labour Department said Thursday.

Last month's job loss was slightly larger than the 60,000 reduction that economists had been projecting. They had also forecast the unemployment rate to ease to 5.4 per cent.

"The backdrop for the labour market remains weak, even as the June reading was in line with expectations," said Charmaine Buskas, senior economics strategist at TD Securities.

"There have been downward revisions to the initial estimate of payrolls in the last eight of nine months. Private sector job declines amounted to 91,000 in June, for the third consecutive month."

The U.S. economy has been slammed by problems in the housing market, coupled with problems in the credit and financial markets. High energy prices have also added to the U.S. economy's woes.

A total of 438,000 jobs have been lost in the U.S. so far this year.

Coupled with the job losses was news of rising numbers of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance. The U.S. government said new filings rose last week by 16,000 to 404,000. That marked the highest point since late March. Economists had been projecting filing to come in at 385,000.

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