The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the September unemployment rate remains unchanged at 9.6 percent.
The private sector added 64,000 jobs. Overall employment fell by 95,000 last month, including the layoff of 77,000 temporary Census workers.
While 14.8 million people are looking for work, another 2.5 million have given up.
BLS reports:
About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in September, up from 2.2 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
There was a slight dip in the black jobless rate to 16.1 percent, but black male unemployment rose to 17.6 percent, from 17.3 percent.
Black female unemployment fell to 12.6 percent, from 13.2 percent.
Black youth unemployment is 49 percent, up from 45.4 percent.
Today’s release is the last report before the midterm elections.
On Election Day 2008, the black unemployment rate was 11.3 percent.
For more info on black unemployment in September, check out UC Berkeley Labor Center’s monthly report.
Also, today from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm EST, Dr. Valerie Rawlston Wilson, an economist at the National Urban League, will discuss the jobs report and its implications for urban communities. To participate in the live chat, go here.
