Unemployment Rate Rises to 7.6%; Payrolls Plunge by Almost 600,000

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to a 17-year high in January, rising to 7.6% from 7.2% in December, the Labor Department said Friday.

Payrolls plunged 598,000, the biggest decline since December 1974, after falling by 577,000 in December.

The job losses were greater than economists’ forecasts of a 540,000 decline, while the unemployment rate was expected to rise to 7.5%, Bloomberg reported.

Transportation and warehousing lost 44,000 jobs and have fallen by 202,000 since the start of the recession in December 2007, with most of the decline occurring in the past five months.

Trucking lost 25,000 jobs in January, while support activities for transportation cut 9,000. Courier and messenger employment fell by 4,000, Labor said.

Factory payrolls plunged by 207,000, the biggest drop since October 1982, while service industries cut 279,000 workers, Labor said.

Retail payrolls fell by 45,100 and financial firms cut 42,000 jobs. Government payrolls rose by 6,000.