September 2001 Unemployment Rate Stays at 9.1%, 103K Jobs Created … 45,000 From Verizon

The September 2011 unemployment number is out and it is more of the same at 9.1%. According to the US Labor Department, 103,000 jobs were added in September with a but. Actually, with a big “but”. 45,000 of the 103,000 jobs came from the previously laid off Verizon workers who went back to work in September. This can hardly be looked at as a created job. Sorry.

Employers added 103,000 jobs in September, a modest burst of hiring after a sluggish summer. Still, job growth remains too weak to lower the unemployment rate, which stayed at 9.1 percent for the third straight month.

The Labor Department also said Friday that it has revised the previous two months to show that companies hired at a stronger pace than first estimated.

Employers have added an average of only 72,000 jobs in the past five months. The economy must create about twice as many consistently just to keep up with population growth.

No matter how one wants to look at job growth, it can be called nothing but anemic. Please do not tell us that President Obama is going to spin 9.1% as positive because it could have been 10% without his economic policies.