The unemployment rate during September in the U.S. remains unchanged at 9.1% where it has been stuck for months now. This means that according to the Federal government more than 14 million people are out of work. The real number – if you include people who stopped looking for work and forced part time workers – is likely 25 million people who want to work full time.
The private sector added almost 140,000 jobs during the month, but 45,000 of those came when striking Verizon employees went back to work. Manufacturing jobs remained flat. The grim reality is that the economy is not growing fast enough to keep up with population growth, let alone return the jobless to taxpaying roles.
The public sector remained a drag on the economy with Government employment continuing to decline over the month (-34,000). The U.S. Postal Service continued to lose jobs (-5,000). Local government employment declined by 35,000 and has fallen by 535,000 since September 2008 when Lehman brothers collapsed and the reckless practices of Wall Street started the global Great Recession.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.8%), adult women (8.1%), teenagers (24.6%), whites (8.0%), blacks (16.0%), and Hispanics (11.3%) showed little or no change in September. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.8%, not seasonally adjusted.
See also:
- Obama Administration Submits Controversial FTAs to Congress. Largest Loss of Jobs since NAFTA Coming?,
- Ford Motor Company September Sales Up 9% – Weakest Sales Performance among the Detroit Three
- General Motors September Sales Up 20%, Led by Pickup Trucks
- Chrysler Group U.S. Sales Up 27% in September, Led By Trucks
