The US moved closer to an official unemployment rate in double figures last month.  The Department of Labor announced this morning that another 466,000 jobs were lost in August, bringing the unemployment rate to 9.7%.  Here's a look at the two-year trend, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

The unemployment rate for adult men passed the double digit mark last month, and now is at 10.1%.  And the negative trend in discouraged and marginally-attached workers continued.  From the BLS release:

About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, reflecting an increase of 630,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.  

Among the marginally attached, the number of discouraged workers in August (758,000) has nearly doubled over the past 12 months. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.5 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in August had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

So if recovery is indeed beginning, it is clear that it is a jobless one.  Read the report here.