US Unemployment Rate at 9.5%

Employers cut 467,000 jobs in June, far more than expected, while the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, the government said on Thursday in a report that showed a labor market continuing to struggle with a deep recession.

The June job losses were more than 100,000 greater than the 363,000 consensus of Wall Street economists polled by Reuters and broke a four-month trend of moderation in job losses.

First-time claims for state unemployment benefits declined in the latest week, almost completely reversing the gain from the prior week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The number of initial claims in the week ending June 27 fell 16,000 to 614,000, quite close to the consensus of Wall Street economists. Claims in the previous week were revised to an increase of 18,000 to 630,000 compared with the initial estimate of a increase of 15,000 to 627,000. This increase had surprised analysts. The four-week average of initial claims fell 2,750 to 615,250