August 2010 US Unemployment Rate

Posted on September 3, 2010 by townsend

• Private sector in U.S. added more jobs over the summer, By Motoko Rich, September 3, 2010, New York Times: “American businesses added more jobs in the last three months than originally estimated, but the wheels of the economic recovery are still spinning in place. The private sector added 67,000 jobs in August, according to the Labor Department. That was higher than consensus forecasts, and the government upwardly revised its numbers for June and July, suggesting that job creation was slightly stronger over the summer than originally reported. But the continuing wind-down of the 2010 Census, as well as state and local government layoffs, led to an overall loss of 54,000 jobs in August. With businesses adding about half the number of positions needed simply to accommodate population growth – much less dent the ranks of the jobless – the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6 percent, from 9.5 percent…”
• Unemployment rate rises, in sign of weak growth, By Neil Irwin, September 3, 2020, Washington Post: “The unemployment rate edged up and private-sector job creation continued at a modest pace in August, the government said Friday, reflecting an economy that is treading water, neither accelerating into a robust recovery nor slipping into another recession. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.6 percent, from 9.5 percent, the Labor Department said, as hundreds of thousands of people rejoined the labor force. Private employers, meanwhile, created a net of 67,000 jobs, better than expected but below the 107,000 positions they added to payrolls in July. Overall, the nation shed 54,000 positions, but that was driven by the elimination of temporary Census jobs, which was widely anticipated…”
• Unemployment rate up to 9.6 percent, but private sector gains jobs, By Mark Trumbull, September 3, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “The number of jobs in the US economy fell by 54,000 in August, as declines in public-sector employment offset a small gain in private-sector jobs. America’s unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent, in part because more people came back into the labor force to look for work. Despite the economy’s overall loss of jobs, these numbers from the Labor Department were better than many forecasters had expected. The jobs news included positive revisions to prior months’ data. The economy lost 229,000 jobs in June and July combined, 123,000 fewer than had been reported previously…”