Unemployment Inches Closer to 10%

Posted on | October 2, 2009 | No Comments

According to the latest Department of Labor jobs report, the unemployment rate inched closer to 10%, landing at 9.8% for the month of September.  That’s up from 9.7% in the prior month, and represents a loss of 263,000 jobs in September.  There are now 15.1 million Americans out of work, 36% (5.4 million) of whom have been out of work for more than 6 months.  Long stints of unemployment, and a belief that they cannot find a new job, caused 571,000  laid-off workers to drop out of the job market, decreasing the size of the labor force (those actively looking for work) and holding the unemployment rate below 10%.  If you factor in these 571,000 discouraged workers, and the 9.2 million workers who have settled for part-time jobs, the unemployment rate soars to 17%.

The construction sector reprised its role as job loss-leader, losing 64,000 jobs in September.  Here are the other biggest losers.

BIGGEST JOB LOSERS

1. Construction (-64,000 jobs)
2. Trade, Transportation and Utilities (-60,000 jobs)
3. Manufacturing (-51,000 jobs)
4. Government (-53,000 jobs)
5. Retail (-39,000)

The government sector is new to our biggest losers list.  It’s joined this sad pack due to job cuts in local and state governments as they attempt to balance their budgets with drastically reduced tax revenue.

The Biggest Job Gainers list is a solitary affair, with the health care sector as its only member.  The health care sector gained 19,000 jobs in September, 15,000 of which were in ambulatory health care services.  This sector has added 559,000 jobs since the recession began in December 2007.  The economy has lost 7.2 million jobs since then.

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