Jobless rate rises

Unemployment surged dramatically to 7.5 percent in July, the first increase after a year and a half of postrecession declines, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

The bureau said an additional 413,000 Americans went onto the unemployment rolls during July, erasing the gains of June, when the seasonally adjusted rate fell from the 7.5 percent May figure to 7.1 percent.

The jobless increase occurred primarily among adult women, whose unemployment returned to that which prevailed between February and May.