US jobless rate touches 9.8% in Sept

Washington : The unemployment rate in the US soared to a 26-year high of 9.8 per cent in September as jobs continued to evaporate even as the recession-hit economy is slowly showing signs of stabilisation.

Reflecting the severity of the ongoing financial turmoil, 263,000 jobs were lost last month, pushing the unemployment rate higher from 9.7 per cent in August.

“Non farm payroll employment continued to decline in September (-263,000), and the unemployment rate (9.8 per cent) continued to trend up,” the US Department of Labor said in a statement.

The September unemployment rate is the highest since 1983 and the largest job losses were in construction, retail trade, manufacturing and government.

Since December 2007, when the economy officially slipped into recession, the count of people without a job has shot up by 7.6 million to 15.1 million. The rate of jobloss has doubled to 9.8 per cent during the same period.

Amomg the worker groups, the unemployment rate touched 10.3 per cent for adult men and 7.8 per cent for adult women.

“Payroll employment has fallen for 21 consecutive months, with declines totalling 7.2 million... Construction employment decreased by 64,000 in September,” Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall said.

The gloomy labor market statistics comes at a time when hopes are rising about an early economic recovery after the national GDP contracted less than expected at 0.7 per cent in the June quarter.

In September, among the employed, there were 9.2 million people working part time, who would have preferred full-time work.

Even as sectors, including construction and manufacturing, witnessed significant employment declines, health care segment saw increase in jobs.

“Employment continued to increase in health care (19,000).

The average monthly job gain thus far in 2009 is 22,000, compared with an average monthly gain of 30,000 during 2008,” the statement said.

Earlier this week, the ADP National Employment Report said American private sector companies slashed 2,54,000 jobs last month.

Recently, US Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke said the US economy has picked up and that financial conditions have Improved.

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