ANTenna Blog -- Business & E-Business

The national unemployment figures are in, and they stink. Really, really stink. And small businesses aren't doing much better.

Overall, the numbers were far worse than expected. Some 467,000 jobs wer lost in June, about 100,000 more than expected. So far, the Great Recession has cost 6.5 million U.S. jobs, pushing the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent. If you count those who've given up looking or settled for part time work, the figure jumps to 16%.

Monthly job losses had been declining since peaking at 741,000 in January, but June reversed the trend. Even more worrying for job seekers, the median time it takes to find new employment hit 17.9 weeks, the longest on records dating to 1967. The numbers were so unexpectedly gloomy that the economic pundits didn't even try to find a positive spin.

A separate report from ADP indicates that small businesses aren't doing much better. Companies with fewer than 50 employees lost 177,000 workers in June, and averaged 185,000 monthly losses in April, May, and June. At least that's slightly better than the first quarter of 2009, when small businesses lost 260,000 jobs per month.

If you're a small business managing to hold on to your employees, congratulations! If you've had to lay off workers, you're not alone.

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