WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 263,000 jobs in September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a government report on Friday that fueled fears the weak labor market could undermine economic recovery.
Reuters – A worker constructs a new home in Geneva, Illinois, June 23, 2009. REUTERS/Jeff Haynes …
The Labor Department said the unemployment rate was the highest since June 1983 and payrolls had now dropped for 21 consecutive months.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected non-farm payrolls to drop 180,000 in September and the unemployment rate to rise to 9.8 percent from 9.7 percent the prior month. The poll was conducted before reports, including regional manufacturing surveys, showed some deterioration in employment measures.
The government revised job losses for July and August to show 13,000 more jobs lost than previously reported. Preliminary annual benchmark revisions, released together with September’s employment report showed that total non-farm payroll employment for March would have to be revised down about 824,000.
Stubbornly high unemployment is viewed as the missing link in the economy’s recovery from its worst recession in 70 years. The economy is believed to have started growing in the third quarter.
See, here’s the thing… The unemployment rate was supposed to stop rising at 8%. That was the point of the stimulus. 10% was considered a disaster. We’re effectively at 10% now, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down despite the fact that we keep hearing how much of a recovery the economy is in.
I’m not saying unemployment would have to stop rising altogether to call the stimulus a success in stopping unemployment, but let’s face reality for a minute here: it hasn’t even slowed down. In fact, the unemployment rate under our current President, who was deeply involved in sculpting the first stimulus package last September, has done nothing but rise to the levels we were told would be unacceptable without the stimulus package.
And bear in mind, we aren’t talking about people who have stopped searching for jobs altogether, have taken on part-time work for less money, or have fallen off the unemployment rolls due to running our of benefits. That number is presumed to be somewhere around 20%.
Yep. Nothing to worry about here. The economic recovery is upon us. No one has jobs, of course, but hey…