The monthly jobs report from the Department of Labor shows unemployment at 9.8% as another 263,000 jobs were lost in September.  Here's the grim picture:

The report contained some more bad news in a couple of areas that we've tried to keep an eye on throughout the year.  The percentage of unemployed workers who qualify as "long-term unemployed"--they have been out of work for 27 weeks or more--rose to 35.6%, bringing the total number of long-term unemployed Americans to 5.4 million. The number of Americans "marginally attached" to the labor force is now at 2.2 million, 706,000 of whom qualify as "discouraged workers"--persons no longer looking for work because they believe there are no jobs.  There were 239,000 discouraged workers at the end of September 2008. You can read the Bureau of Labor Statistics release here.

The jobs report was the lead item on Wall Street Journal's AM Report today.  Have a look: