Job losses for people of all skill levels
TEXT OF STORY
Bill Radke: The May unemployment numbers come out later this morning and it’s gonna be ugly, that’s the expectation. Unemployment rate past nine percent, half a million more jobs lost. Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman reports one thing that makes this recession different is the kind of jobs that are going away.
Michrll HartmeL It’s lousy to get laid off no matter where you stand on the economic pyramid.
Nariman Behravesh is chief economist at IHS Global Insight. He says this time, those at the bottom in terms of skill-set have plenty of company.
Nariman Behravesh: Typically, recessions hit less well-educated workers harder than
people with higher degrees. This is a broad-based recession in the sense that it’s hitting all workers.
Of people without a high school diploma, 15 percent are unemployed right now. The jobless rate among university graduates is just 4.5 percent. That sounds low, but it’s more than double what it was last year — a million more professionals unemployed.
Behravesh says that shows just how deep and broad the recession is.
Behravesh: Typically, companies value those skills that they have and are more reluctant to let them go than people who have lower skill levels.
Behravesh predicts unemployment won’t peak until early next year at 10 percent overall.
I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.
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