The U.S. economy added a mere 64,000 private sector jobs in September, while nonfarm payroll employment fell by 95,000, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 9.6 percent, the U.S. Labor Department announced on Friday. Government employment declined by 159,000, reflecting the decline in temporary jobs for the 2010 Census and job losses in local government.
Currently the number of unemployed persons stands at 14.8 million, but this figure is much higher if discouraged workers who have looked for work in the past year are included, as well as, millions of part-time workers who want to work full time. By some estimates, the broader unemployment rate is around 18 percent.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, the unemployment rate for teenagers is a whooping 26 percent, adult men (9.8 percent), adult women (8.0 percent), whites (8.7 percent), blacks (16.1 percent) and Hispanics, (12.4 percent).
Commenting on the September employment figures Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said the following:
“In the six months before the president took office, we lost nearly 4 million jobs. We now have added private sector jobs for nine straight months, totaling 863,000 private sector jobs since the beginning of the year. While we need to pick up the pace of recovery to erase the job losses and get Americans back to work, this encouraging growth shows that we are headed in the right direction.”
Solis Added:
“While we are working to speed the pace of job creation and hiring, we continue to work for small businesses. This commitment is reflected in the Small Business Jobs bill the president signed last week — a bill that represents the most significant step on behalf of our small businesses in more than a decade.”
Solis said that the economy was on the road to recovery and that she and President Obama have confidence in the American economy and people.  Whatever this means!
