Unemployment hits 8.9%; but accountant jobs bounce back

Accounting and bookkeeping services actually added 2,600 jobs in April…

… to a seasonally adjusted workforce of 927,900 people, up from 925,300 in March, for an increase of about 2.8%, according to today’s employment situation report from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Click to enlarge

The professional services sector was battered by big losses in administrative, support and temporary services.

For the nation as a whole, the Labor Dept. reported:

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in April (-539,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 8.5 to 8.9 percent. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been lost. In April, job losses were large and widespread across most private-sector industries. Overall, private-sector employment fell by 611,000.

In April, employment in professional and business services dropped by 122,000. Temporary help services accounted for about half of the job loss. Since the start of the recession, temporary help employment has fallen by 825,000, nearly a third of its total.

To be sure, the data for April is still preliminary and subject to a couple upcoming monthly adjustments. But see for yourself… FREE DOWNLOAD: Click here to get the full Labor Department report (PDF, 29 pages).

Then, take a closeup look at the long-term trend for CPA firms: the early 1990’s were worse. Today, the trend looks relatively good for CPA firms. (Click to enlarge)

One Response to “Unemployment hits 8.9%; but accountant jobs bounce back”

  1. Jessica-May

    Things can only get better from here and hopefuly things will improve although the cost of living seems to be going up and up.