OCEAN user group president stresses the importance of acquiring current job skills. By Chris Smith
April was not a kind month for Americans. The unemployment rate rose from 8.5 to 8.9 percent in the course of four weeks, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the recession began in December 2007, some 5.7 million American jobs have been lost. Job losses continued at a sharp rate in April across all major private-sector industries. In one month alone, 611,000 Americans were bumped into unemployment lines.