Unemployment jumps to 9.7%

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Consider this a part of Barack Obama’s August horribilis. The White House desperately needed good news on the employment front after spending the last five weeks getting hammered by angry constituents in almost every Congressional district in the US, and especially after Joe Biden spent yesterday bragging about the economic policies of the administration. Instead, unemployment hit a new high in August:

U.S. employers cut a fewer-than-expected 216,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high, the government said on Friday in a report showing a still fragile labor market.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent after dipping to 9.4 percent in July and the decline in payrolls was the smallest in a year. The department revised job losses for June and July to show 49,000 more jobs lost than previously reported.