US unemployment hits 8.5%

View an online version of this email here.  All times are London time: Friday Apr 03 2009 Breaking news US unemployment hits 8.5% US unemployment hit 8.5 per cent, its highest level since 1983, as the recession continues to savage the labour force. Non-farm payrolls shed 663,000 jobs, in line with economists' expectations, bringing the losses since the recession began in December 2007 to 5.1m. Almost two thirds of the decrease happened in the last five months. "The loss of jobs thus far into the recession has been staggering," said Joseph Brusuelas, Director of Moody's Economy.com in a statement released before Friday's payroll report. "We do not expect payroll losses will end before the beginning of 2010 and anticipate that the rate of unemployment will peak near 10% in the middle of next year." Read more » ABOUT THIS EMAIL You have received this email because you have signed up for this briefing on FT.com Manage subscriptions | Unsubscribe | Change your email address Change whether you receive this email as HTML or plain text | Forward this email to a friend Privacy policy | Advertise | Contact © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2009. "FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times. The Financial Times Limited, registered in England and Wales number 227590. Registered office: Number One Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HL. VAT number GB 278 5371 21.