U.S. job recovery will be slow, some say

WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. job market is facing heavy headwinds and isn't likely to improve in the short term, economists said.

The decline in automobile sales in June is one cause for alarm, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Sales in June dropped 28 percent at Ford Motor Co., 21 percent at Toyota and 18 percent at General Motors Corp.

Layoffs at car companies are one concern but the reluctance of consumers to spend in a time of tightening credit at banks is a signal that many production lines -- and even jobs in banking -- will slow down.

"It's a slow-motion recession," Ethan Harris, an economist at Lehman Brothers told the Times.

Harris said expects two years of "sub-par growth … growth that's not enough to generate jobs."

The official unemployment rate jumped 1 percent to 5.5 percent in the past year but the figure clouds the issue by not counting those who have given up looking for work and full-time workers now working part time.

The U.S. Labor Department says the adding in those groups puts the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, the Times reported.