Unemployment Rate Falls Below 10 Percent

by Josie Raymond · 2010-02-05 12:15:00 UTC
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The Department of Labor has good news and it has bad news. The good first: the unemployment rate is below 10 percent for the first time since September 2009. According to January economic indicators released today, the unemployment rate dropped from 10 percent in December to 9.7 percent in January. It had been expected to rise to 10.1 percent.

"While unemployment remains a severe problem, today's employment report contains encouraging signs of gradual labor market healing," said Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, which consults with the president. The economy did lose 20,000 jobs in January, but that's down considerably from the 150,000 cut in December (happy holidays!). But increases in manufacturing jobs and the length of the average workweek lead many economists to believe that this data signals a real recovery, rather than another of this recession's many ebbs and flows.

Now the bad news: 9.7 percent unemployment is still unacceptably high. And as we reported yesterday, first-time claims for unemployment benefits jumped precipitously last week, indicating that layoffs are not over. The "underemployment rate," which measures people who can only find part-time work and those who have given up on job hunting, fell slightly but is still high at 16.5 percent. And there are now 6.3 million people who have been out of work for more than six months, the most since the government started keeping track in 1948.

Photo credit: thejonoakley

Josie Raymond has reported from the streets of the South Bronx, written for several magazines that folded (not her fault) and fixed thousands of typos.
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