WASHINGTON– The nation’s unemployment rate surged to 10.2 percent in October, reaching double digits for the first time in 26 years, the Labor Department reported today.
Unemployment had been steadily rising in recent months, but the double-digit figure is likely to have a major psychological impact as well as potentially significant consequences in Washington.
The unexpected sharp increase, from 9.8 percent in September, came as employers dropped 190,000 workers from their payrolls last month. That was larger than the 175,000 job losses that most forecasters were expecting for the month, and it underscored just how dire the labor market remains despite the recent upturn in the nation’s economic output.
“It’s an important political threshold,” said Robert Reich, the former labor secretary under the Clinton administration who now teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. With the mid-term elections looming next year, he said, “the 10 percent is going to give Republicans more ammunition to criticize the [Obama] administration and force the hand of the administration to at least appear to be taking additional steps to remedy the situation.”
In fact, White House aides, in apparent anticipation of the bad statistical news, said President Obama was scheduled this morning to sign a bill that would extend jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed and expand tax-relief programs for homebuyers and businesses operating at a loss.
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