WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs in June, more than economists had expected, the U.S. Labor Department said this morning. It was the first monthly increase in job losses in four months.

The continued losses brought the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent last month, up slightly from 9.4 percent in May, the department said. The 0.1 percentage-point increase was the smallest since last November.

The total number of jobs lost was higher than the median forecast of economists polled by Bloomberg News, who expected employment to fall by 363,000 in June and the unemployment rate to reach 9.6 percent. Most economists predict unemployment will reach 10 percent before the end of the year.

Monthly job losses peaked in January when 741,000 positions were cut, the largest monthly total since 1949.

Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said in a speech earlier this week that a rebound in the job market was unlikely in the near term even if the economy begins to grow later this year. “The unemployment rate is likely to lag so that the peak in the unemployment rate is likely to be sometime early next year,” he said.

James O’Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Conn., agreed. “We need more improvement in the labor market for the recovery theme to play out,” he told Bloomberg earlier this week. “We’ve seen an inflection point in employment, with the rate of declines diminishing. The numbers will get better in the second half.”

The unemployment rate in Rhode Island stood at 12.1 percent in May, the most recent month for which figures are available. Economists have said the state’s jobless rate could continue to rise into next year before a turnaround begins.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen predicted earlier this week that unemployment nationally will “remain painfully high for several more years.”

John A. Challenger, CEO of the Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., said it was important to keep the numbers in perspective.

“After some promising signs of stabilization in the economy, including five consecutive months of declining announced job cuts, today’s employment report showing higher-than-expected job losses will undoubtedly rattle some nerves,” Challenger said in a statement.

“However, it is important to maintain some perspective and consider that monthly job losses in the second quarter averaged 436,000, which is considerably lower than the 691,000 jobs lost on average during the first quarter,” he said.