Weekly Unemployment Numbers Up

Many teachers are facing the prospect of unemployment in 2009. Initial claims from teachers are up in June 2009.

With June almost over, the unemployment numbers for the month are looking a whole lot like May — they’re not great.

This week the story on layoffs and the effect on unemployment insurance is more of the same: Claims are up, seasonally adjusted numbers are up, and the number of folks continuing to collect is also on the rise.

From the U.S. DOL release:

In the week ending June 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 627,000, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 612,000. The 4-week moving average was 617,250, an increase of 500 from the previous week’s revised average of 616,750.

On unadjusted numbers (from the DOL release):

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 566,586 in the week ending June 20, an increase of 8,548 from the previous week. There were 358,159 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.6 percent during the week ending June 13, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 6,098,083, an increase of 19,737 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.1 percent and the volume was 2,852,599.

One of the reasons for the jump is that the school year is over, and a number of teachers who received pink slips earlier this year are filing for initial claims. As told to Reuters: “A Labor Department official said a variety of states had reported more claims than anticipated from the educational services sector, which appeared to be linked to the end of the school year. ”

School may be out for summer, but many teachers who won’t be returning to work next fall aren’t viewing this as a break. Many teachers could be looking to switch industries or find jobs and work that can capitalize on communication skills. One industry that could use teachers is the training profession in corporate and other professional settings. With the growing number of people seeking work, training programs in everything from green technologies to nursing to computer skills are bound to see rising attendance.

Are you looking to switch industries, get additional training or broaden your job search? Read on:

How to Advertise Your New Education on your Resume When You Switch Careers

Checklist: Changing Industries and Changing Careers

Do You Need Job Retraining?

[Image by Chicago 2016 via Flickr CC 2.0]

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