Washington, August 01: US President Barack Obama predicts more job losses, as unemployment rates in some parts of the United States reached record levels.
In June, the jobless rate hit a 26-year high of 9.5 percent amid more cutbacks by employers.
Now, in some parts of the United States, double-digit unemployment is a reality, as reports showed that 41 markets across the country have job-less rates higher than 10 percent, Press TV correspondent in Washington said.
The rates are in sharp contrast from last year, when all 100 markets showed figures in the single digits.
The figures exceed the expectations of the unemployment ceiling, made by economists, including some in the Obama administration.
Now President Barack Obama is pledging to get people back to work after hearing a promising report about the economy.
The report made by the Commerce Department on Friday said that the US economy is showing signs of emerging from a long and brutal recession that began in December 2007.
The department said that the gross domestic product (GDP) — which measures total goods and services output within US borders — contracted at a slower-than-expected pace of a 1.0 percent annual rate in the second quarter of the year, compared to a 6.4 percent tumble in the January-March quarter.
While hailing the White House’s economic achievement Obama, however, said that the monthly jobs report due out next Friday was “likely to show we’re still continuing to lose far too many jobs.”
“I realize that none of this is much comfort to those Americans who are still out of work and struggling to make ends meet,” the President said.
So-far more than 2 million Americans have lost their jobs since Congress approved Obama’s hefty $787 billion economic stimulus package.
—-Agencies