Why April's Unemployment Rise Shows Workers Hopeful Again

What's next? Economist Peter Morici estimates that the economy must add more than 13 million jobs to bring the unemployment rate down to 6 percent by the end of 2013. One significant impediment: financially-strapped state and local governments that will likely continue to cut jobs, putting more pressure on the private sector to create jobs.

Shapiro expects that a peak in the unemployment rate is likely "not too far away," but cautions that because so many workers escaped the job market and abandoned their searches during the recession, there may be a long stream of workers returning to their job hunts and adding to the unemployment rate until they all find jobs.

Not all are hopeful. "The steep recession will unlikely be followed by a steep recovery, the numbers just aren't moving in that direction," William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement today. The NFIB's survey of small business owners found 7 percent still planning to reduce employment over the next three months. "There is little enthusiasm among owners to hire more workers, primarily due to continued weak sales trends," Dunkelberg said.

Reader Comments Read all comments (9)

Add Your Thoughts

Comment Name State Select One AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY International Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Incorrect please try again

Enter the words above: Enter the numbers you hear:

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.