Recently release job figures show that the unemployment rate has held steady at 9.5 percent for the past three months, and many are not optimistic that it will improve in the second half of 2010. The economy recently suffered another blow as 143,000 temporary census jobs came to an end, bringing the net total of jobs lost in July to 131,000.
It seems that instead of hiring new employees, companies are expecting more of their current workers, as evidenced by the one-tenth of an hour increase in the average workweek and 4 cent raise in hourly pay.