Unemployment rate jumps to 9.4 percent

WASHINGTON, June 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 9.4 percent in May, exceeding economists' expectations by 0.2 percent, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.

The nation lost 345,000 non-farm jobs in May, about half the monthly average of the past six months, but the number of unemployed reached 14.5 million in the month. Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed has nearly doubled, rising by 7 million, the department said.

Wages remained unchanged in May, while the average weekly hours worked declined by 0.1 hours to 33.1 hours per week.

The employment picture now includes 3.9 million people unemployed for at least 27 weeks, triple the number of long-term unemployed at the start of the recession.

Among adult men, the unemployment rate is 9.8 percent. Among adult women, the rate is 7.5 percent.

The unemployment rate for whites is 8.6 percent. For blacks the rate is 14.9 percent. Among Hispanics, 12.7 percent are unemployed, the department said.