Stunningly bad news on the nation’s jobless rate today: Unemployment worsened in October to 10.2 percent, a huge jump from 9.8 percent in September. That’s 15.7 million jobless workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ^[1].

Worse, the unemployment and underemployment rate is a shocking 17.5 percent ^[2]—more than 27 million American workers without full-time jobs.

The construction, manufacturing and retail industries had the biggest losses, with 62,000 construction jobs lost in October, 61,000 in manufacturing and 40,000 in retail. Health care and temporary employment were the only bright spots, with health care jobs increasing by 29,000 and temp jobs by 44,000.

The nation’s jobs situation would be even more dire without the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Nearly 1 million jobs have been saved or created because of the economic stimulus plan ^[3], and the White House says the nation is on track to meet the president’s goal of 3.5 million by the end of next year.

But as today’s numbers show, the overall jobs situation isn’t improving any time soon, according to Economic Policy Institute Director Larry Mishel, who predicts that one-third of the U.S. workforce will be unemployed or underemployed in 2010.

Long-term unemployment is the worst in 24 years ^[4], and there now are more than six workers ^[5] for every available job. The U.S. Senate finally passed an extension ^[6] of unemployment insurance, and President Obama is expected to sign the bill today. But far more needs to be done.

In short, the nation needs jobs.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says although “the apocalypse has been postponed” because of the Obama administration’s economic recovery package passed by Congress earlier this year, it’s essential to follow up with further fiscal action—that is, spending money now to create long-term benefits, like jobs—to prevent prolonged suffering.

Economist Julianne Malveaux puts the case succinctly ^[7]:

Absent public job creation, it is likely that the economy will not fully recover.

Help certainly isn’t coming from Wall Street or Big Business.

Now that they have pocketed their bailout cash, Wall Streeters are impervious to the nation’s ongoing jobs disaster. In fact, an annual report by Johnson Associates on financial industry payouts projected they will be up 40 percent from 2008 ^[8], when they plunged in the midst of the financial crisis.

In 2008, Wall Street handed out nearly $20 billion in cash awards and billions more in stock and other incentives to employees based in New York.

Wall Street is celebrating a “recovery” based on a 3.5 percent increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of this year. But America’s workers know there can be no recovery unless everyone who wants to work can find a good job.

This alarming jobs report “should be a wake-up call to sleepy politicians,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka ^[9]:

Every day, it becomes more urgent that the federal government step up to the plate with bold actions to boost job creation. Such action should include urgently needed fiscal relief to state and local governments, community jobs programs, additional investments in infrastructure and green jobs and credit relief to small and medium-sized businesses. Failing to act puts us at very real risk of a lost generation—of hard-working Americans who can’t put food on the table and bright young people who never realize their potential.

The AFL-CIO and our allies are unveiling an effort this month to push for immediate job creation, among other critically needed economic aid for working families. The nation needs to act fast to stop the hemorrhage of jobs and the economic crisis among working families.