logo

September Jobs Report: Economic Recovery 'Disappointingly Slow'

image
Created: 22 October, 2013
Updated: 21 November, 2022
2 min read

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its jobs report Tuesday indicating the economic recovery is continuing at a snail's pace. When compared with other contemporary recessions, including those from '01, '91, and '81, the Great Recession remains unparalleled. Likewise, recovery in each of the earlier recessions picked up considerably two years following peak unemployment.

Credit: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Credit: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

According to the BLS, 148,000 jobs were added in September while the unemployment rate remained relatively unchanged at 7.2 percent. Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, called growth "disappointingly slow."

"Today’s jobs report shows that the labor market recovery remains disappointingly slow, with employment still well below normal levels and long-term unemployment still near historic highs... The temporary federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program, which President Obama and Congress authorized through the end of the year, provides additional weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to workers who exhaust their regular state UI benefits before they can find a job.  In most states, that’s after 26 weeks and, as the chart shows, roughly four out of 10 jobless workers have now been out of work and looking for a job for 27 weeks or more."
Credit: CPPP

unemployment

Unemployment has yet to reach pre-2007 levels, and involuntary part-time workers have remained the same at 7.9 million.

From the BLS report:

Among persons who were neither working nor looking for work in September, 2.3 million were classified as marginally attached to the labor force, down by 215,000 from a year earlier. These individuals had not looked for work in the 4 weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were available for work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 months. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was 852,000 in September, essentially unchanged from a year earlier.
Credit: CPPP

Credit: CPPP

Latest articles

votes
Wyoming Purges Nearly 30% of Its Voters from Registration Rolls
It is not uncommon for a state to clean out its voter rolls every couple of years -- especially to r...
27 March, 2024
-
1 min read
ballot box
The Next Big Win in Better Election Reform Could Come Where Voters Least Expect
Idaho isn't a state that gets much attention when people talk about politics in the US. However, this could change in 2024 if Idahoans for Open Primaries and their allies are successful with their proposed initiative....
21 March, 2024
-
3 min read
Courts
Why Do We Accept Partisanship in Judicial Elections?
The AP headline reads, "Ohio primary: Open seat on state supreme court could flip partisan control." This immediately should raise a red flag for voters, and not because of who may benefit but over a question too often ignored....
19 March, 2024
-
9 min read
Nick Troiano
Virtual Discussion: The Primary Solution with Unite America's Nick Troiano
In the latest virtual discussion from Open Primaries, the group's president, John Opdycke, sat down ...
19 March, 2024
-
1 min read
Sinema
Sinema's Exit Could Be Bad News for Democrats -- Here's Why
To many, the 2024 presidential primary has been like the movie Titanic - overly long and ending in a disaster we all saw coming from the start. After months of campaigning and five televised primary debates, Americans are now faced with a rematch between two candidates polling shows a majority of them didn’t want....
19 March, 2024
-
7 min read