The Labor Department released unemployment statistics this morning for the month of October, eliciting cheers from some quarters over the fact that private sector payrolls added 150,000 jobs and beat market expectations. But the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.6 percent — and a closer look at the numbers indicate that key sectors impacted by the economic downturn haven’t seen the improvement many had hoped for.
And, in a sign that unemployed and semi-employed Americans are getting discouraged again, the labor force participation rate edged down in October, as did the number of Americans employed part-time for economic reasons. The number of people only marginally attached to the labor market — those who have looked for work in the past year but not in the past month — increased by 200,000. Furthermore, the number of long-term unemployed — those who have spent more than 27 weeks without a job — increased from 6.12 million to 6.2 million over the past month.
The positive private sector growth numbers were driven by yet another increase in temporary jobs (35,000), health care (24,000), retail jobs (28,000) and food service (24,000). But manufacturing lost 7,000 jobs, and the leisure industry dropped 26,000 jobs — and jobs in construction, information and financial services, all sectors hard-hit by the recession, remained unchanged. Local and state governments also laid off 15,000 workers, excluding teachers, continuing a trend that started earlier this year.
On Wednesday, President Obama noted that unemployment benefits were due to expire for some of the many long-term unemployed Americans and said this morning that he was committed to extending those benefits — though Republicans indicated yesterday that they did not consider extending benefits a priority. Obama seemed to recognize the priorities of the GOP in his speech about the numbers this morning when he discussed what he wanted to do about the high unemployment rate:
So we have to keep fighting for every job, for every new business, for every opportunity to get this economy moving. And just as we passed a small business jobs bill based on ideas of both parties, and the private sector, I am open to any idea, any proposal, any way we can get the economy growing faster so that people who need work can find it faster. This includes tax breaks for small businesses, like deferring taxes on new equipment so that they’ve got an incentive to expand and hire, as well as tax cuts to make it cheaper for entrepreneurs to start companies — this includes building new infrastructure from high-speed trains to high-speed internet so that the economy can run faster and smarter, promoting innovation and creating incentives in growth sectors like the clean energy economy. Certainly it includes keeping tax rates low for middle class families and extending unemployment benefits to help those hardest hit by the downturn while generating more demand in the economy.
Obama then went on tie his now-controversial trip to India to the jobs report, noting that “for every $1 billion we increase in exports, thousands of jobs are supported here at home and that’s why I set a goal of doubling American exports over five years.”
