Economic Outlook: Jobs, jobs, less jobs

NEW YORK, July 2 (UPI) -- U.S. job losses continued to dominate economic news this week as a private research firm said 473,000 private sector jobs were lost in June.

The monthly Auto Data Processing Inc. report showed job losses slowed to an average of 492,000 jobs in the past three months, an improvement over the 691,000 per month lost in the previous three months. But emerging markets that rely heavily on the U.S. consumer are quickly hit by news there is less buying power out there.

The U.S. economy is widely framed as 70 percent driven by consumer spending, putting paychecks at the forefront of everyone's concerns from investors to families.

On Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department said the unemployment rate in June rose from 9.4 percent to 9.5 percent, not as sharp a rise as economists had predicted.

ADP said construction jobs shrank for the 29th consecutive month and financial service jobs shrank for the 19th consecutive month. Economists predict an unemployment rate above 10 percent is likely.

Considered a more accurate report, the Labor Department said 467,000 non-farm jobs were lost in the month of June with retail losing 21,000 jobs, wholesale trades 16,000 and the information industry 21,000. Automobile dealerships lost 9,000 jobs, the department said, the direct result of bankruptcy reorganizations at General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, which canceled contracts for thousands of dealerships.

In spite of the stimulus plan aiming billions at "shovel-ready" infrastructure improvements, construction at the peak of the building season lost 79,000 jobs in the month. The mining sector lost 8,000 jobs and the federal payroll shrank by 49,000, largely due to layoffs of temporary workers hired to prepare for the 2010 census, the department said.

With job losses widespread, positive news was rare. Healthcare added 21,000 jobs in June, precisely the average number per month the sector has added since January. But healthcare added an average of 30,000 jobs a month in 2008, the report said.

Hours worked shrank to the lowest weekly average since 1964, dropping to 33 hours per week. Average hourly wages, meanwhile, were unchanged in the month at $18.53.

Asian markets were mostly lower Thursday. The Nikkei average dropped 0.64 percent, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 1.09 percent. The Singapore Straits Times fell 1.35 percent, while the S&P/ASX in Australia rose 0.09 percent.

In midday trading in Europe, markets floundered. The FTSE 100 in London fell 1.66 percent. The DAX 30 in Frankfurt dropped 2.5 percent. The CAC 40 in Paris fell 1.9 percent, while the broader DJStoxx 600 slid 1.57 percent.