U.S. Unemployment Worsens to 9.8 Percent, More Jobs Lost Than Expected
U.S. job loss worsened in September, with 263,000 lost, moving the official unemployment rate from 9.7 percent to 9.8 percent and underlining how the nation’s economic crisis is a jobs crisis. The new data out today by the U.S. Department of Labor means some 15.1 million workers have lost their jobs since the recession began in December 2007.
The official 9.8 percent unemployment rate is bad enough, but a more realistic—and horrible—picture of what’s really going on in this nation is the unemployment data that includes those not counted in the official figure, such as those who have given up looking for work: That’s a stunning 17 percent unemployment rate—some 26 million workers who need jobs or full-time work but cannot find it.
