The United States lost 263,000 jobs in the month of September and unemployment continued to trend upward to 9.8 percent, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In a presentation to a congressional Joint Economic Committee Friday, the bureau’s commissioner, Keith Hall, said 51,000 jobs were lost in the manufacturing sector last month. In addition, the construction sector lost 64,000 jobs in September, while the nation's retail segment lost 39,000 jobs.
The only notable employment increase occurred in the health care sector, with 19,000 jobs added.
In his statement before the Joint Economic Committee, Hall said: “In summary, the labor market remained weak in September. Payroll employment fell, and the unemployment rate continued to trend up.” The labor bureau's report concludes that the nation has doubled its unemployment rate since the start of the recession in December 2007, leaving 15.1 million people unemployed to date.
In Texas, the state has yet to release its September unemployment data, but August data shows the Lone Star State’s unemployment rate trailing at least 2 percentage points behind the national average.
In August, Texas had an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent. Meanwhile, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area had an 8.3 percent unemployment rate, the same as in July but much higher than a rate of 5.3 percent a year earlier.
In addition, the Dallas-Plano-Irving and Fort Worth-Arlington submarkets had unemployment rates of 8.2 and 8.3 percent, respectively, in August.
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