Jobs Report Shows Lowest Unemployment Rate Since 2009
By Matt Metzner on 10/05/2012 in Barack Obama, jobs, mitt romney, unemployment with 14 CommentsRead Time: 2 - 3 minutes
Credit: Department of Labor
Americans received some good news this morning as the Department of Labor released its September jobs report showing an unemployment rate of 7.8%. For the past eight months the jobless rate has hovered between 8.1 and 8.3% before taking a 0.3 percent plunge in September.
The number of job losers or those completing temporary positions fell by 468,000 compared to last month, but still remained at 6.5 million people. The number of people unemployed for less than 5 weeks dropped by 302,000 while the number of long-term unemployed remained approximately the same at 4.8 million.
The number of Americans who are part-time employed due to economic reasons rose by 600,000 in September. This number is sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers. Often these workers have had their regular employment hours cut down to part-time hours or they were unable to find full-time work.
The sectors with the most growth in the month of September were health care, transportation, and housing.
The health care industry added 44,000 jobs in September. 30,000 of these jobs were added in ambulatory health care services, with an additional 8,000 jobs being added in hospitals.
Employment in transportation and warehousing rose by 17,000. Transit and ground transportation saw an additional 9,000 jobs added and 4,000 jobs were added in warehousing.
The average work week for Americans is on the rise at 34.5 hours. Also the average employee hourly wage rose to $23.58 per hour, an increase of 7 cents from August.
Americans should be encouraged by the growth heading into the holidays and we will likely see more temporary and seasonal jobs added as shoppers start filling stores and malls after Thanksgiving. September 2012 marks the first month where the unemployment rate is below 8% since January 2009. Expect this job report to be a talking point in upcoming presidential debates and pieces as much of the news about the report has signaled this as welcome information for the Obama campaign.
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14 Comments
Michael Higham
10.05.2012
@michaelhigham
This is much needed momentum for Obama since economic issues are most prominent in this year’s election cycle. This will be a big talking point in the Oct. 16 debate but Romney will still state that it is not enough. Maybe it isn’t but any growth in jobs is better than none. I’d also like them to talk about what type of jobs get created, as stated in the report. The candidates talk about this in such a shallow manner.
Blaz Gutierrez
10.05.2012
@blazgutierrez
Certainly this will be a boon to the Obama campaign, especially within healthcare which will serve to promote the validity of the ACA. Unfortunately, there’s still room for concern for those who have stopped seeking work entirely. The increase in part time workers is also troublesome. Likely they don’t have insurance, or any other type of benefit, and are living paycheck to paycheck.
Lucas Eaves
10.05.2012
@lucaseaves
Finally a good news.
Shawn M. Griffiths
10.05.2012
@shawntx
It’s funny, because there are Republican political pundits that are saying the Obama administration manipulated the figures. Former GE exec Jack Welch accused Obama of this over Twitter and a good number of Republicans and conservative voices are pushing the idea that the unemployment rate was manipulated after a poor debate performance by the president. The number of jobs created was not manipulated. The number of total employment, which is the highest it has been since 2008, was not manipulated. This is good news for the labor market and the economy and should be something we are all celebrating. Some people are putting politics first, however, and that is unfortunate.
Rick London
10.05.2012
LOL..Say it ain’t so, Joe…did the Conservatives really make that accusation? Did they not figure in that even if they HAD manipulated the numbers, that would show in the DOL audit as they are party neutral? I guess they continue to hope/pray America (at least us 47% don’t really understand the dynamics of government administration.
Cassidy Noblejas Bartolomei
10.05.2012
@cassidynb
I appreciate how quickly you were able to get the stats from the jobs report out! Although I’m still a “job loser”, it’s nice to hear that things may be heading in a better direction for America’s labor force.
Benjamin Foster
10.05.2012
@befoster87
This certainly bodes well for the Obama adminstration but will do little to excite the base or sway the decreasing percentage of undecided voters. Had unemployment broke 8% prior to September I believe the implications would have been much greater.
Alex Gauthier
10.06.2012
@alexg
I’m pretty sure Romney already addressed this report claiming that it was solely due to more people giving up on looking for a job, which may or may not be true.
Blake Bunch
10.08.2012
@blakebunch
This really hit home: “The number of Americans who are part-time employed due to economic reasons rose by 600,000 in September.” Working part-time may as well be considered unemployment, if that is a worker’s only means of income. Unless they have several part time jobs, it is rather difficult to the necessary daily expenses working part time.
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04.08.2013
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05.22.2013
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