Employers cut back for 6th straight month

Published: July 3, 2008, 7:21 pm

WASHINGTON — Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy’s fragile state. The U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.The latest snapshot of business conditions, released by the Labor Department on Thursday, showed continued caution on the part of employers chafing under high energy prices and are uncertain about how long the economy will be stuck in a sluggish mode, reflecting fallout from housing, credit and financial troubles.Heavy job losses in construction, manufacturing and financial services, along with cutbacks in retailing, eclipsed job gains in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government.The report, however weak, was largely on target with economists’ forecasts. They had been expecting employers to reduce payrolls by about 60,000 in June and for the unemployment rate to slip a notch to 5.4 percent.The national jobless rate spiked to 5.5 percent in

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