US unemployment surges to unprecedented levels

US unemployment has surged to a 25-year high as the jobless rate has increased to 8.1 percent in February. according to the Labor Department, showing that 651,000 jobs had been lost, which is the third consecutive month that job losses have exceeded the 600,000 mark.

Such a trend of heavy and continuous job cuts has never been experienced before and is a further indication that the recession is far deeper than expected, and that the Obama administration were correct in assuming that greater measures were needed in order to kick-start economic growth.

Jobs were lost in nearly every category of employment from construction to financial services which means that the total job losses since the economic began to sour back in December 2007 stands at 4.4 million.

This has brought many economists to fear for the worst and Nigel Gault, senior US economist at IHS Global Insight, has described that the economy and job losses are in freefall, and the current declines are unprecedented.

In order to stem the tide of job losses the Obama administration is aiming to initially stabilise the situation with a $787bn stimulus package that will consist of tax cuts and increase public projects in order to create new jobs.

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