June was another disappointing month for American workers as job losses jumped to unexpected levels and the national unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, a 26-year high.

The monthly employment report released Thursday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was particularly bad for older workers. The unemployment rate for people 55 and older jumped to 7 percent in June, pushing into record territory for the third month in a row. Until this year, the rate for older workers had never risen above 6.3 percent since the BLS began publishing statistics for that age group in 1948.

No country for older men looking for a job

And again, the report showed that the United States is no country for older men—at least those who want a job. The unemployment rate for men 55 or older leaped to 7.7 percent in June, up from 7 percent the previous month. For women in that age group, the June jobless rate was lower, at 6.4 percent, but that was also a sharp jump from May’s 5.8 percent. A year ago, the jobless rate for that age group was only 3.5 percent for men and 3.4 percent for women.

“There is little positive news for older workers” in the report, says Sara Rix, a strategic policy adviser for AARP’s Public Policy Institute. “In fact, older workers took a beating. The unemployment rate for the age 55 and older workforce might have remained lower than that for the total workforce, but it rose more sharply in June. Involuntary unemployment isn’t good for anyone, but it is especially troubling in the case of older workers.”

‘Once out, it's not easy to get back in’

In another sign that the job market remains very tough for older workers, it was taking workers ages 55 to 64 an average of 30.3 weeks to find a new job in June, longer than any other age group. “Once out, it is not easy to get back in,” Rix says.

Despite these headwinds, older workers are hanging on to their jobs more tightly than younger ones, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. New statistics prepared Thursday by the center show that in the current recession, the percentage of people over 55 who are working has fallen by only 0.5 percent, while the working population of those ages 25 to 54 has fallen 3.8 percent.

Financially unprepared for retirement

Older workers are “concerned about their economic future,” says Andrew D. Eschtruth, a spokesman for the center. “Shrinking 401(k) balances and the uncertainties of the equities and housing markets are making people nervous about their retirement future and more likely to stay on the job.” Rix agrees. “Millions of workers are not financially prepared for retirement and had planned on working longer to supplement inadequate retirement savings. The loss of jobs in the economy has thrown a wrench into those plans,” she says.

Although recent gains in the stock market and some economic indicators have raised hope that the 18-month-old recession may be nearing an end, there were few signs of hope for workers in the BLS report.

The nonfarm labor force shed 467,000 jobs in June, considerably more than the range of 325,000 to 365,000 that economists had told reporters they expected.

Education and health services fared well

Every sector of the economy saw employment fall with the exception of education and health services, which managed to add 34,000 jobs. Manufacturing suffered the steepest loss, 136,000 jobs, followed by professional and business services and construction. Even government, which had helped to shore up the job market in recent months, posted a loss of 52,000 jobs, due largely to the layoff of temporary workers preparing for next year’s census.

Overall, 14.7 million people were jobless in June. That’s 7.2 million more than when the recession started in December 2007, and the unemployment rate has jumped 4.6 percentage points in that time.

Even people who had jobs were feeling pressure. The average work week fell to 33 hours, the lowest since records began in 1964. The number of people working part time for economic reasons held steady at about 9 million people, about twice as many as when the recession started. Meanwhile, production and nonsupervisory workers saw no improvement in their hourly earnings in June; the average level remained unchanged at $18.53.

Double-digit levels in the forecast

Most economists expect unemployment to keep rising for at least the rest of this year and to reach double-digit levels—a politically volatile situation with national elections coming in 2010.

The official figures do not include people who have given up looking for work or are settling for part-time employment. If they were included, the number of jobless people would be 25.9 million, and the national unemployment rate in June would have been 16.5 percent, according to BLS economist Emy Sok.

Art Dalglish is an editor at the AARP Bulletin.