The U.S. unemployment rate leaped from 5.7 to 6 percent in April 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It's the highest unemployment rate since August 1994 when it was also at 6 percent, but trending downward.

According to a survey by CBSMarketWatch, economists thought that the unemployment rate would rise to only 5.8 percent, and employers would add at least 51,000 workers to their payrolls. To the contrary, the BLS reported that the unemployment rate rose to its highest in almost eight years and employers added only 43,000 workers.

Worse, the number of unemployed workers rose by 483,000, for a total of 8.6 million after seasonal adjustment. Since October 2000, the jobless rate has increased by 2.1 percent from its low of 3.9, and the number of unemployed workers has risen by 3.1 million. The number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more is up by 161,000, and has more than doubled since it started trending upward a year and a half ago.

Although the economy is showing signs of a slow recovery according to the gurus, employers apparently are not willing to act on turnaround speculation alone. When it comes to hiring and firing, it doesn't much matter what the gurus are saying, if employers' bottom lines don't agree. The nervous ones are still quick to layoff at the first signs of recovery dips, and most are not likely to start hiring trends until they see solid signs that their bottom lines are improving.

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Statistics and chart data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Chart graphic by J. Steven Niznik.
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