This morning the U.S. Department of Labor released the official unemployment summary and the October 2010 unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.6%. For three consecutive months, the unemployment rate has remained steady at this 9.6% figure.
Despite the unchanging unemployment rate, there were 159,000 private sector jobs added during the month, significantly higher than the 60,000 or so that was predicted by economists earlier this week.
Here are a few highlights and lowlights from the report:
- There are still approximately 14.8 million unemployed workers, not counting the 1.2 million discouraged workers
- The unemployment rate among adult women is only 8.1%
- Adult males are facing a 9.7% unemployment rate
- Teenagers aren’t having the best luck finding jobs with a 27.1% unemployment rate
- The retail sector added 28,000 jobs during the month, maybe a surge in preparation for the holiday shopping season?
- Auto dealers added 6,000 jobs
- Food services and drinking establishments added 24,000 new jobs
What is likely frustrating to the nearly 15 million unemployed Americans is the fact that The Great Recession officially ended in the summer of 2009 but the employment recovery is still slowly gaining ground. One has to ask if the midterm elections will have any effect on the nation’s unemployment crisis. CNNMoney.com actually has a poll on the topic active on their site right now:
What effect will the 2010 midterm election have on the economy?
Choices are “Improve it”, “Make it worse” and “No impact”. With 13,566 answers, 39% of respondents feel that the midterm elections will improve the economy, 36% feel the elections will have no impact on it and 25% feel that the midterm elections will make the nation’s economy worse.
What about you? What effect do you think the 2010 midterm election will have on the economy?
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