Area Development
The country lost 125,000 nonfarm jobs in June, but the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 9.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The job decrease resulted from a decline of 225,000 temporary Census workers. Private-sector payroll employment rose by 83,000 positions.

14.6 million people were unemployed in June, a decline from the previous month. The unemployment rates for major worker categories showed little or no change, as did the number of long-term unemployed people, which remained at 6.8 million people. That group comprises 45.5 of the unemployed.

The number of people employed part-time for economic reasons, or involuntary part-time workers, has dropped by 525,000 over the past two months.

There was an increase in the number of discouraged workers, those who have stopped looking for work because they do not think jobs are available for them. That figure has risen to 1.2 million people from 414,000 the previous year.