Business

New hiring flatlining

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What a summer bummer.

US job growth ground to its slowest pace in nine months in June, dashing hopes for a second-half economic rebound and sending the country’s unemployment rate up to 9.2 percent — its high mark this year.

The Labor Department yesterday reported that just 18,000 new jobs were created last month — a fraction of the 105,000 new jobs Wall Street was expecting. Making the tepid result that much more disappointing was that it followed by one day a report from payroll processing firm ADP that showed that the private sector added 157,000 jobs in June.

“This is beyond embarrassing,” said Union of Unemployed Executive Director Rick Sloan. “When a Democratic administration cannot add more than 18,000 jobs a month a year after its much-ballyhooed ‘Summer of Recovery,’ it’s time for a complete Cabinet shakeup. It is long past time for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to leave.”

“This report has dashed hopes that the economy was about to accelerate again,” said economist Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight.

It was the second straight month of anemic job growth. The Labor Dept. revised May’s numbers down to 25,000. The unemployment rate in May was 9.1 percent. That contrasts sharply with the 200,000-plus jobs added in the private sector in each of February, March and April.

The jobless crisis also deepened in June, with the number of Americans looking for work and those who have given up trying climbing to 16.2 percent from 15.8 percent in May. Some 14.1 million Americans are unemployed.

After it was announced that the jobs outlook was falling down, stocks dropped. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 62.29, to 12,657.20, but was off more than 100 points for most of the day. The S&P 500 Index was off 9.42, to 1,343.80.

The slowing economy had a bit of a silver lining: At least Americans will pay less for gas. Crude oil prices tumbled 3 percent to $96.52 a barrel. tharp@nypost.com