UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE U.S. STAYS UP
Unemployment in U.S. Probably Rose as Recovery Can’t Generate Enough Jobs
The jobless rate probably rose in September for a second month as the year-old U.S. recovery failed to generate enough jobs to keep up with a growing labor force, economists said before a report this week.
Unemployment climbed to 9.7 percent from 9.6 percent in August, according to the median estimate of 62 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of an Oct. 8 report from the Labor Department. The data may also show companies added 77,000 workers to payrolls, and total hiring stagnated amid cuts in government staffing as the decennial census wound down.
A lack of jobs is restraining consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, and underscores the Federal Reserve’s concern that the rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s has been too slow to develop. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg project unemployment will average at least 9 percent through 2011.
The U.S. has “a difficult labor market and mediocre GDP growth,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “Not enough jobs will have been created to keep the unemployment rate from drifting higher.”
A reading as projected means the jobless rate would have equaled or exceed 9.5 percent for 14 consecutive months, surpassing the 13-month period from mid 1982 to mid 1983 as the longest span of elevated joblessness since monthly records began in 1948.
