U.S. Lost 30,000 Jobs in June; Jobless Rate Hit 6.4% -- Bloomberg.com

And here comes the bogeyman: "selected quotes" from the article cited above. Please, all of you Pharaohs, Kings of De Nile, read the articel yourself if you don't like my selections:

The economy has lost 394,000 jobs since the end of January and grew at a 1.4 percent annual pace for a second consecutive quarter from January to March. Effects of the war with Iraq also restrained growth in the three months that ended Monday, and the economy needs to grow more than twice as fast before hiring starts to pick up in earnest, economists said.
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In a separate report this morning, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims unexpectedly rose 21,000 to 430,000 in the week ended Saturday. The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile indicator, fell 4,500 to 425,000.
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``It will take (GDP) growth in the 4 percent range before we start seeing employment improve,'' International Paper Chief Executive Officer John Dillon said in an interview Tuesday. ``And that's just an economic reality of this economy because productivity is very good and remains good.''

The lack of jobs is also restraining consumer confidence. The Conference Board's index of confidence was 83.5 last month compared to 83.6 in May as views on the present conditions deteriorated because of job losses, the New York-based research group said last week. The percentage of people that said jobs were currently plentiful fell to 11.4 percent, the lowest since January 1994.
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Among blacks, the unemployment rate rose to 11.8 percent from 10.8 percent in May. The jobless rate for Hispanics increased to 8.4 percent from 8.2 percent and for whites rose to 5.5 percent from 5.4 percent.

For teenagers, unemployment increased to 19.3 percent last month from 18.5 percent. The jobless rate for women rose to 5.2 percent from 5.1 percent. The jobless rate for men increased to 6.1 percent from 5.9 percent.