The Obama Economy strikes again! The Bureau of Labor Statistics today released its June unemployment numbers, disappointing economists and analysts. The report showed that U.S. payrolls expanded by just 80,000 (net) in June, stalling the unemployment rate at 8.2%.
Prior to the release of the numbers, Bloomberg polling of economists showed that they expected a gain of 100,000 positions in June.
The report comes on the heels of Bloomberg’s Consumer Confidence Index, which was down again this week. It showed women feeling less confident about buying power and the overall economy. It looks like women’s intuition called it correctly.
This is not good news for President Obama heading into a contentious election year. Even worse – Hispanic and Latino unemployment remained essentially unchanged at 11.0 percent, and more black people were unemployed, raising their unemployment rate to 14.4 percent.
The May Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report by state showed Colorado at 8.1%. The June report will come out on August 1, 2012.
Several other key states in the 2012 election are lagging in job creation with unemployment higher than the national average, including Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, and North Carolina.
Below is a chart showing the unemployment in these key states.
