The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a further 247,000 job losses across the nation in July.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced a further 247,000 job losses across the nation during the month of July, coupled with an unemployment rate of 9.4%.

However, it appears that the pace of the job decline is slowing; falling from 9.5% from June, the losses were considerably below the estimates of economists surveyed by Reuters of a 320,000 decline and a rise in unemployment to 9.6%.

Furthermore, the average monthly job loss for May through July of 331,000 was about half the average decline for November through April, at 645,000.

In addition to those counted in the official jobless figures, about 2.3 million people were marginally attached to the labor force in July, 709,000 more than a year earlier. These individuals, who were not in the labour force, wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 796,000 discouraged workers in July, up by 335,000 over the past 12 months. Discouraged workers are those not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.5 million marginally attached to the labour force in July had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

In total, it is thought that around 16% of people in the US are currently unemployed, working part-time because they cannot find full time work, or discouraged. Equally, the average length of unemployment has spiked to 25.1 weeks from 24.5 weeks in June and 16.3 a year ago.

The main industry sectors affected have been construction – declining by 76,000; manufacturing – declining by 52,000 in July and by 2 million since the recession began; and retail – declining by 44,000.

For more information, click here to visit the US Department of Labor website.