This month the U.S. economy lost 159,000 jobs. The losses occurred in nearly every sector, with only health care, government and mining showing signs of life. These sectors added 17,000, 9,000 and 8,000 jobs, respectively.
Other than those small gains and the fact that the unemployment rate held steady at 6.1%, one has to really dig to find the bright spots in this month’s report, especially when you consider that this report does not reflect the credit market meltdown of the last few weeks. This report shows the financial sector lost 17,000 jobs. It’s a sure bet that next month’s report will show a pretty sizable increase in that number.
The national unemployment rate of 6.1% is depressing enough, but the numbers for ethnic minorities is far worse and often overlooked. The unemployment rate for blacks is now 11.4%; 7.8% for Hispanics.
A few more interesting and overlooked stats:
- The unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma is 9.6%.
- The unemployment rate for those with a high school diploma is 5.7%.
- The unemployment rate for those with some college or an associates degree is 4.8%.
- The unemployment rate for those with a bachelors degree or higher is 2.7%.
The average duration of unemployment rose again in September to 18.4 weeks (17.4 weeks in August). Thirty-eight percent of those unemployed were unemployed 15 or more weeks.
Now for the bright spots:
- Computer systems design services and management and technical consulting services each added 9,000 jobs in September.
- As above, mining, government and health care sectors each added jobs.
- The utilities sector added 2,900 jobs.
Sorry, the bright spots were skimpy this month. But, the upshot is that this report and the ones from the past several months have answered a few of the career questions I’ve previously posed. For instance, whether you should go back to school. The answer: Yes. Go back to school and get a degree and a couple of certificates. It’ll be well worth your while when this all shakes out.
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