Businesses added new jobs for the ninth month in a row in September,
but overall the U.S. saw a loss in jobs for fourth straight month.
According to the monthly report from Department of Labor, private employers added
another 64,000 jobs to their payrolls -- slightly smaller than the previous two months
of hiring.
But because the government cut 159,000 jobs -- including 77,000 temporary census workers
and 83,000 state and local government cuts -- the overall job market declined by 95,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate remained the same as last month at 9.6 percent.
The shocking news from the report is the 83,000 state and local jobs that were cut
-- the worst decline since 1982 -- as
state and municipalities struggle with their budgets. Sadly, at a time when education is a
focus of national media attention, 58,000 teachers and education worker jobs were cut. In the
past two months, states have cut more than 100,000 jobs.
In terms of job growth in September, healthcare employers added 24,000 jobs -- healthcare
employment has risen by an average of 21,000 per month this year.
Meanwhile, leisure and hospitality employers added 34,000 workers while
professional and business services increased payrolls by 28,000 workers.
The report also showed a record-high 9.5 million people are involuntarily working part-time jobs.
We are obviously a long way from recovery, as the job market will not fully recover from the Bush recession,
according to many estimates, for several more years. In fact, not counting all those who lost
their jobs in the Bush recession, we need to see a gain of roughly 150,000 jobs per month
just to keep pace with population growth.
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