Tough Job Market May Last Through Late 2009

US jobs are eroding and they're unlikely to rebound until late 2009, reports the New York Times. May’s 5.5% unemployment rate is a point higher than a year ago and the 9.7% underemployed rate is up from 8.3% in May 2007, reports the Labor Department—which tomorrow releases a report expected to show a decline of 60,000 jobs in June.

Losses in June would be the sixth consecutive month of decline, causing economists to worry that the US is caught in a “slow motion recession.” “In a normal recession, things kind of collapse and get so weak that you have nowhere to go but up," says one economist. "But we’re not getting the classic two or three negative quarters. Instead, we’re expecting two years of sub-par growth. It’s kind of a chronic rather than an acute pain.” (More economy stories.)