US double-digit jobless rate spurs new White House strategy
- Source: Global Times
- [02:09 November 09 2009]
- Comments
US unemployment jumped to double digits in October for the first time since 1983, reaching 10.2 percent, prompting renewed talk of additional stimulus for an economy struggling to emerge from recession.
Friday's Labor Department report, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, showed job losses narrowed last month to 190,000.
The improvement was not enough, however, to prevent the jobless rate from surging to the first double-digit level for more than 26 years, from 9.8 percent in September.
The US economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, likely ending the most painful recession in 70 years, but the jobs data suggested employers are wary of the prospects for a strong, sustained recovery.
President Barack Obama called the numbers "sobering" and said his administration was considering "further steps" to spark job growth.
"To that end, my economic team is looking at ideas such as additional investments in our aging roads and bridges, incentives to create jobs and steps to increase the flow of credit to small businesses," he said.
"I can promise you that I won't let up until the Americans who want to find work can find work and all Americans can earn enough to raise their families and keep their businesses open," he said.
Christina Romer, head of Obama's economic advisors, said the data "contained both signs of hope for recovery and painful evidence of continued labor market weakness."
Robert MacIntosh, economist at Eaton Vance, said the overall report was "not all that bad," with revisions, but that "the headline of 10 percent was huge psychologically."
MacIntosh said if current trends continue, the economy could see job gains in January or February but that unemployment may rise with labor force and population growth.
"It is consistent with a double dip (recession) or W-shaped recovery," said Cary Leahey, senior economist at Decision Economics.
US Treasury debt prices rose Friday as traders saw the data as supporting a prolonged period of low interest rates.
Agencies
