US unemployment rate rises 9.6 percent in August

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) – The United States Department of Labor on Friday announced that the unemployment rate rose 9.6 percent in August due to the reluctance of private companies to hire workers due to the fragile economic situation.

The recent data shows a slight 1 percent increase to July’s unemployment rate. From May through August, the jobless rate remained in the range of 9.5 to 9.7 percent.

In the last month, government employment fell by 121,000, mainly due to the departure of 114,000 temporary workers hired for the 2010 Census. The private sector added a modest 67,000 workers to its payroll.

The number of long-term unemployed individuals declined by 323,000; with 6.2 million civilians still jobless for 27 weeks and over. This amount represents 42 percent of the total U.S. unemployment.

About 2.4 million people were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the previous 12 months. These individuals were not considered unemployed because they had not searched for work in the past 4 weeks prior to the study.

Form that amount, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in August, an increase of 352,000 in comparison to 2009. Discouraged workers are the citizens who do not look for a job because they believe there are no jobs available for them.

The other 1.2 million workers did not look for a job in the past 4 weeks because they had other commitments like attending to school or family responsibilities.

Involuntary workers increased by 331,000 over the month to a total 8.9 million. These individuals were employed part time for economic reasons because their hours were cut back or because they were not able to find a full time job.

In the private sector, two areas showed the highest rate of employment during August, health care and construction. Employment in health care increased by 28,000, thus far in 2010 this sector has added an average 20,000 jobs per month. The construction sector added 19,000 jobs in the period.

On the other hand, manufacturing reflected the highest decrease in employment. In August, 27,000 manufacturing jobs were lost due to a decline in motor vehicles and parts industry by 22,000.

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