Day of economic shocks for the US

Jobless rate, oil prices soar; Dow tumbles

By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | June 7, 2008

An unexpected surge in the national unemployment rate set off shock waves that washed over financial, currency, and oil markets yesterday and delivered another blow to hopes that the sliding US economy would soon begin to rebound.

The Labor Department reported yesterday that the jobless rate leaped half a percentage point to 5.5 percent in May, the biggest one-month jump since 1986. Employers, meanwhile, cut payrolls for the fifth consecutive month, shedding nearly 50,000 jobs in May.