Business & Finance

Record jobs report sends stocks surging

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 09, 2020.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Dow Jones Industrial Average rallies 829 points

The Dow rallied 829.16 points, or 3.15%, to close at 27,110.68. The S&P 500 jumped 2.62% to 3,193.93. The Nasdaq Composite surged 2.06% to hit a record high and close at 9,814.08. A record surge in U.S. jobs sent stocks flying as traders cheered the prospects of the economy reopening. 

A record 2.5 million jobs added

U.S. employers added a shocking 2.5 million jobs last month — the largest gain on record —

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The coronavirus pandemic has created a new job: temperature taker

spike 3 hours ago

Managers at the massive Bell facilities in North Texas had a problem. As 5,000 employees building helicopters needed to stay on the job, the company — a division of Textron — had to take steps to keep workers safe.

One step included plans to take employee temperatures as they came to work. The company set out to hire 60 nurses.

“I kind of laughed,” said Wayne Lynch, managing partner at Vaco’s Dallas office. Vaco is a large consulting, recruiting and staffing firm that works with Bell. “My wife is a nurse, and on any given day, she can pick from

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Here’s why the real unemployment rate may be higher than reported

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Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The unemployment rate in the U.S. improved last month as millions of people returned to the workforce.

But the official 13.3% unemployment rate, while still high relative to any point since the Great Depression in the early 20th century, likely understates the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

The real unemployment rate is likely at least 16%, according to the federal government.

That would mean roughly 1 in 6 people can’t find work.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which published its monthly jobs report Friday morning, admitted the official unemployment rate may be low

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Here’s what unemployment rate actually means and why it’s important

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Members of the Long Beach, New York CSEA civil service union hold a drive-by protest in front of Long Beach City Hall to protest further union layoffs on May 26, 2020.

(Photo by Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 13.3% in May, defying expectations of a much bleaker figure near that of the Great Depression era.

The stock market rejoiced after the announcement on Friday. The S&P 500 was up about 2.4% as of 10:54 a.m. ET.

But what does the unemployment rate mean and why is it important?

Indicator of hardship

And

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