Unemployment Rate Drops to 9.7%

Filed in National by on February 5, 2010

The number of employed Americans has risen by 541,000 since the last Jobs report, while an additional 20,000 jobs have been lost. The jobs report from November has been revised up to show a gain of 64,000 jobs. But the news is not all good, as the continued revisions to previous jobs reports of 2009 to show 1,300,000 more in job losses. All told, the Labor Department says the Great Recession has eliminated 8.4 million jobs. That’s the most of any recession since World War II as a proportion of total payrolls. Thanks Republicans for your wonderful stewardship of our economy.

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  1. Not really a great report. I was hoping to see job gains instead of losses. This recovery is slow. We desperately need another stimulus.

  2. donviti says:

    Jobs that will never come back either.

  3. Brooke says:

    Well, many of them won’t, donviti. My great grandfather was a wheelwright before he got a job as an engineer on the trains. Our economy is changing faster than that.

  4. anon says:

    Well, many of them won’t, donviti. My great grandfather was a wheelwright before he got a job as an engineer on the trains. Our economy is changing faster than that.

    Brooke – the problem is a little more complicated nowadays. A wheelwright and a train engineer are both jobs that support the transport of manufactured goods. Your great grandpa was able to get that engineer job because manufacturing was expanding at an incredible rate. Nowadays we can’t even get companies to hire C++ programmers for Java jobs.

  5. a.price says:

    well folks, add me to the loss column today…. As an Obamabot, my new situation makes me feel worse cause I make the president look bad. Looks like better more thought out posts from me for a while
    (i’ll be alright… it just sucks)

  6. Brooke says:

    Yes, that’s what I was saying, and a global economy means that laws that protect workers can be evaded by outsourcing, so you can’t even relocate. So the jobs will, objectively, go away. That’s a tough nut for mere politicians to crack.

    I’m sorry to hear that, a. πŸ™

  7. pandora says:

    Oh, a., I’m so sorry.

  8. dominique says:

    that sucks, a. what field are you in? you’d be surprised how many contacts the blogger community has. maybe someone knows of something that may be a good fit for you.

  9. I’m so sorry, a. I hope you can find something soon.

  10. a.price says:

    I’ve been working as a lab tech, D. Almost any chemical and mechanical engineering laboratory support job, including basic machining you could imagine I have experience in.
    Basically, my job was eliminated but an identical job was created that I have applied for. Catch is, a) it isn’t certain I will get it (despite nothing but positive remarks from my supervisor) and b) it wont start for a little while even if it do get it. It is what it is. I’m by no means in dire straights. Thankfully i have a supportive family and no debt. I’m just one of those guys that needs to have a job to feel valid. Im also an eternal optimist (regardless of what my angry tirades may indicate) thank you for the thoughts, all. updates to follow i guess πŸ™‚

  11. pandora says:

    Hmmm… I can ask around, a. You’ve hit upon an area in which I have quite a few contacts.

    Email me at pandora @ delawareliberal.net and we’ll take this discussion off line.