Technical information:
  Household data:      (202) 691-6378      USDL 09-0328
              http://www.bls.gov/cps/ 

  Establishment data:  (202) 691-6555      Transmission of material in this release
              http://www.bls.gov/ces/       is embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EDT),
Media contact:         (202) 691-5902      Friday, April 3, 2009.
                                    
                                    
                  THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION:  MARCH 2009
                  
                                    
   Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline sharply in March (-663,000), 
and the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.  Since the recession 
began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds 
(3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last 5 months.  In March, job 
losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

   In March, the number of unemployed persons increased by 694,000 to 13.2 mil-
lion, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent.  Over the past 12 months, 
the number of unemployed persons has grown by about 5.3 million, and the unem-
ployment rate has risen by 3.4 percentage points. Half of the increase in both 
the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate occurred in the last 4 months.  
(See table A-1.)
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm 

Thanks you President Obama and Dumocratic Congress.

Jim