Rate Rose

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. unemployment rate rose two-tenths of a point in June to 5.0 percent as the economy added jobs at a slower-than-expected pace, government figures showed yesterday.The numbers lent support to the Federal Reserve's decision yesterday to hold interest rates steady as growth subsides.Last month's gain of 217,000 new jobs exceeded May's revised increase of 166,000, as reported by the Labor Department, though it fell short of the increase of 230,000 forecast by Wall Street economists.

More brazen criminals armed with powerful guns have changed the nature of crime in Baltimore, according to a study of why the homicide rate continues to rise despite a sharp decrease in the number of shootings.While city residents are less likely now than in the past two years to be hit by random gunfire, those who are wounded stand a far greater chance of dying before reaching a hospital.A team of experts examined thousands of shooting and hospital reports to determine why 16.7 percent of shooting victims died last year, compared with 11 percent in 1993.

Maryland's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose a notch to 4.9 percent in July but still stayed well below the nation's jobless rate of 5.4 percent for the same month, state officials said yesterday.The state's jobless rate, which has hovered within two-tenths of a point below or over 5 percent since April 1994, was 4.8 percent in June of this year.U.S. Labor Department officials said yesterday that the national unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent in August. Maryland's jobless tally for August won't be disclosed until next month.

Md. jobless rate up slightlyThe number of working Marylanders fell by more than 30,000 in January, pushing the state's unemployment rate up one-tenth of a percentage point, to a seasonally adjusted 4.9 percent.While the job climate worsened slightly, state officials said other parts of the economy, such as retail sales, showed improvements.Not seasonally adjusted, the state's unemployment rate rose to 5.0 percent in January, up from 4.6 percent in December. In the Baltimore metropolitan area, the jobless rate rose a half-point to 5.6 percent.

Carroll County was one of three counties in the Baltimore metropolitan area to experience an increase in unemployment during July, state Department of Economic and Employment Development officials reported Friday.Unemployment rose from 4.1 percent in June to 4.5 percent in July, while the Baltimore area figure dropped from 6.8 percent in June to 6.3 percent in July, said Marco Merrick, DEED spokesman.Harford and Queen Anne's were the other two counties in the Baltimore area with unemployment rate increases in July, he said.

Maryland's unemployment rate jumped sharply in January, as layoffs from Christmas-season jobs and the cold winter weather pushed the state jobless rate to 6.4 percent from December's 5.8 percent.State officials said unemployment rose by 16,430 people in January, bringing the total out of work in Maryland to more than 170,000 workers.But a bright side in the unemployment rate, they said, is that fewer workers than normal left the work force after giving up hope of finding a job soon. When people stop looking for work, they are no longer counted in the unemployment figures.

Unemployment in Maryland, which reached a nine-year high last year, hit black and male workers harder than other groups, the U.S. Department of Labor reported yesterday.In an analysis of the state's 1992 job market, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that while Maryland's unemployment rate rose three-quarters of a percentage point to 6.6 percent, women saw no increase in joblessness.The unemployment rate for women remained at 5.9 percent in 1992.At the same time, the unemployment rate for blacks jumped nearly 1 1/2 points to 11.2 percent.

Maryland's unemployment rate improved slightly in May, dropping to 6 percent from 6.2 percent in April, the state government announced yesterday.But economists and business people said that the job market in Maryland, while still better than the national average of 6.9 percent for the same month, continued to be soft.The national rate rose to 7 percent in June, the U.S. Department of Labor announced yesterday. Maryland's statistics lag the nation's by a month."We've had a real slowing in the recovery," said Michael A. Conte, a regional economist at the University of Baltimore.

Carroll County's unemployment rate rose in February, in step with a statewide increase in joblessness.The county's rate rose from 7.2 percent in January to 7.5 percent in February.Maryland's unemployment rate grew from 6.4 percent in January to 6.7 percent in February. But the statewide rate is lower than a year ago; the February 1992 rate was 7.5 percent.Carroll County showed an even larger drop of a full percentage point from a year ago, when the unemployment rate was 8.5 percent.More Carroll Countians were working in February than in January.

Carroll County's unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent in January, a result of layoffs and plant closings that always happen after the winter holidays, Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development officials said Friday.The number of Carroll County people receiving unemployment insurance rose from 3,898 in December to 4,912 in January.However, DEED officials said they are reluctant to compare that number to December's 6.0 percent unemployment rate because year-end population adjustments are not complete.