American Unemployment Nearing 10%

The US unemployment rate rose to 9.8% in September, the highest since June 1983, as employers shed far more jobs than expected. The U.S. Labor Department said that employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, with companies in the service industries, including banks, restaurants and retailers, hit especially hard.

Healthcare was again the only sector that added jobs in September. Employment in health care increased by 19,000 in September with the largest gain occurring in ambulatory health care services (15,000). Health care has added 559,000 jobs since the beginning of the recession, although the average monthly job gain thus far in 2009 (22,000) is down from the average monthly gain during 2008 (30,000).

A total of 15.1 million Americans are now out of work. In addition those working part time for economic reasons remained at over 9 million.

The average working week edged down by 0.1 hour to 33.0 hours and average weekly earnings for September were $614.57.

September 2009 weekly earnings by industry sector

Industry	Average Weekly Earnings $ (£)	12 Month % change
Natural resources and mining	994 (626)	-4.5
Construction	827(520)	-4.8
Manufacturing/Durable Goods	778 (490)	0.9
Manufacturing/Nondurable Goods	671 (422)	1.1
Wholesale trade	778 (490)	1.4
Retail trade	398 (250)	0.6
Transportation and warehousing	685 (431)	1.3
Utilities	1238 (779)	-0.5
Information	935 (588)	1.0
Financial activities	744 (468)	2.1
Professional and business services	767 (483)	3.7
Education and health services	631 (397)	1.8
Leisure and hospitality	272 (171)	-0.1
Other services	498 (313)	0.0

exchange rate used £1.00 = $1.589