The national unemployment rate keeps climbing.

Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467-thousand jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in june, the highest on records dating to 1994.

The government also says the number of newly laid-off workers filing for unemployment insurance dropped last week a sign job cuts are easing.