September jobs report shows no change in unemployment rate

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report issued today indicates that total non-farm payroll employment “edged up” 103,000 in September while the unemployment rate “held at 9.1 percent.” That translate into 14 million unemployed workers.

Keith Hall, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said in a written statement that ”since April, payroll employment has increased by an average of 72,000 per month, compared with an average increase of 161,000 for the prior 7 months.”

The September report indicates that “the increase in employment partially reflected the return to payrolls of about 45,000 telecommunications workers who had been on strike in August,” adding that “job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and construction,” while 34,000 government jobs were lost.

The September report adds that the unemployment rate “showed little or no change”:

• Adult men’s rate was almost 9 percent.
• Adult women’s rate was 8 percent, while for teenagers it was almost 25 percent.
• Whites’ rate was 8 percent; for blacks 16 percent and for Hispanics a little over 11 percent.

The info adds that the number of individual who were jobless for 27 weeks and over was 6.2 million in September, or 44.6 percent of the unemployed. The September report points out that the number of persons “working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job” rose to 9.3 million.

The number of discouraged workers, “persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them,” was “down by 172,000 from a year earlier” and stood at 1 million in September.

Florida’s unemployment rate stayed static at 10.7 percent from July to August.