EPI news: double-digit unemployment

14 states now have double-digit unemployment

New data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that five more states -- Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee -- had crossed into double-digit unemployment, while Michigan’s unemployment rate rose from 12.9% to 14.1% in a single month. With 14 U.S. states now in double-digit unemployment and many continuing to see large increases month to month, EPI convened experts from three of the hardest-hit states -- Michigan, Ohio, and Oregon -- who discussed what these staggering job losses had meant for their local economies and shared their concerns that the pain could last long after the recession ends. Michigan’s job situation, for instance, has gone from bad to worse with the recent bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler, while in Oregon, May unemployment of 12.4% represents a 33-year high.

Although officials from Oregon say they are starting to see a slowdown in the pace of job loss, they also fear that jobs will remain scarce well into the next decade. A front-page Washington Post story on June 21 described the same trend nationwide and said new jobs were the missing ingredient in a long-awaited economic recovery. The Post story quoted EPI President Lawrence Mishel saying that regardless of forecasts that the recession could end later this year, “there is a ton of pain in the pipeline.”