With 4,000 American jobs vanishing in August, the US experienced a net decline in its workforce last month for the first time in four years.
Analysts attribute this decline to unease due to the credit sector crunch.
MSNBC reports on the latest US Labor Department statistics:
Job losses in construction, manufacturing, transportation and government swamped gains in education and health care, leisure and hospitality, and retail. Employment in financial services was flat. The weakness in payrolls reflected fallout from a deepening housing slump, a credit crisis and financial turbulence that has made businesses more cautious in their hiring.
“I think a lot of businesses are moving to the sidelines to wait and see how things shake out,” said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.
Economists were expecting a much stronger report. They were forecasting payrolls to grow by 110,000.
The drop of 4,000 jobs in August was the first decline since August 2003. Payrolls fell by 42,000 at that time as the job market was still struggling to recover from the 2001 recession.
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto
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