National Unemployment Rate Declines

There was some surprising good news for the nation as a whole since during the month of September, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent, finally reaching below the 8 percent and above that it has been at since February of 2009. This has helped many citizens of the United States to feel more hopeful and optimistic about job creation and the possibility of the economy getting back in the shape that it was in prior to the Great Recession. In a recent announcement, the United States Department of Labor stated that payroll employment had increase by a total of 114,000 during the month of September, helping to lower the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent from 8.1 percent during the previous month of August.

Prior to the decline, for three straight months in a row, the unemployment rate was completely disappointing, staying relatively flat. During the month of September, however, employment finally increases and unemployment declined. Along with more jobs being created, the number of hours that employees were working also managed to increase. This is usually a sign that employers plan on hiring more employees at some point in the future. The Labor Department also provided a revision of the amount of jobs that have been created over the past two months. During the month of July, the economy added a total of 181,000 jobs, which was more than the original estimate of around 141,000. During the month of August, a total of 142,000 jobs were created.

Several different sectors were benefiting from the improvements, including the healthcare sector, transportation and warehouse sector, and the financial services sector. Each of these particular sectors managed to add a number of jobs to the economy. In the meantime, the manufacturing industry ended up losing a total of 16,000 jobs. Even with the jobs being shed, there have still been a number of improvements taking place over the past few months. The economy has been able to add thousands of jobs over the span of the past eight months or so. The estimates on the number of jobs needing to be created varies but it would be ideal for the economy to produce anywhere from 90,000 to around 125,000 jobs each month in order to drastically improve the workforce and labor market while helping to lower unemployment rates.

The economy still has a long way to go. There will need to be at least 10 million more jobs added to the economy in order for it to return back to the way that it was prior to the recession that took place in 2007 and ended in 2009. With so many jobs needing to be added, it could take an entire decade for the economy to return back to normal.