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Once again we have a jobs report from the Department of Labor where the unemployment remains unchanged. The unemployment rate remains at 9.1%, but in September, unlike in August, the economy did add jobs. Government employment went down again, but 103,000 more jobs were added in the private sector than were lost in the public sector. Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : Here are some of the key data from other areas we like to track in the monthly jobs report: The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose to 9.3 million in September. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In September, about 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as 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, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in September, down by 172,000 from a year earlier. (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 remaining 1.5 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in September had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the full report from the BLS here .

The unemployment rate has edged back down to 9.1%, as the US economy gained 117,000 as the US economy jobs in May, according to the latest report from the Department of Labor . The private sectors continues to add jobs. Notably, health care, retail trade, manufacturing, and mining led the way in hiring, while the public sector continued to lose jobs. Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : Here are some of the key data from other areas we like to track in the monthly jobs report: The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was about unchanged in July at 8.4 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In July, 2.8 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, little changed from a year earlier. (These 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, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in July, about the same as a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.7 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in July had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the full report from the BLS here .

The US economy continues to add jobs. "Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 244,000 in April," according to the latest report from the Department of Labor . Despite the increase in jobs, the unemployment rate rose slightly, and is now at 9.0% (up from 8.8% at the end of March). Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : Here are some of the key data from other areas we like to track in the monthly jobs report: The number of persons unemployed for less than 5 weeks increased by 242,000 in April. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) declined by 283,000 to 5.8 million; their share of unemployment declined to 43.4 percent. The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed over the month, at 8.6 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In April, 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as a year earlier. (These 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. Read the full report from the BLS here .

The US economy added a mere 36,000 jobs, but the unemployment rate dropped to 9.0% in January, according to the latest report from the Department of Labor . Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : The manufacturing sector had a relatively good month, adding 49,000 jobs. Retail added 28,000 jobs. Meanwhile, construction, and transportation and warehousing employment dropped during the month. Here are some of the key data from other areas we like to track in the monthly jobs report: The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involun- tary part-time workers) declined from 8.9 to 8.4 million in January. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In January, 2.8 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, up from 2.5 million a year earlier. (These 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, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in January, about the same as a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.8 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks pre- ceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the full report from the BLS here .

The official number of unemployed workers in the US is at 14.9 million, as the economy shed another 54,000 total jobs in August, according to the latest report from the Department of Labor . The national unemployment rate is now at 9.6%. Private employers hired an additional 67,000 workers last month, but those numbers were offset by more temporary government jobs ending. Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : In some of the other areas we like to track from the monthly jobs report: About 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, little changed 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, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in August, an increase of 352,000 from a year earlier. (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 remaining 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the full report from the BLS here .

The unemployment rate edged down slightly last month. With employment growing by 431,000, the unemployment rate went from 9.9% in April to 9.7% in May, according to data released by The Department of Labor this morning. Not startling changes, but it the figures do present a better employment picture than a year ago. Here's a look at the unemployment rate and payroll employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : Here's the latest on two areas we have been trying to track--marginally attached, and discouraged workers: About 2.2 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in May, unchanged 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, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in May, up by 291,000 from a year earlier. (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 remaining 1.1 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the BLS report here . And though it came out before the latest unemployment figures, Motoko Rich had an interesting and relevant article in the New York Times about how the actual employment picture may be rosier than the statistics are showing. Rich profiles several people who have recently worked to enter the labor force again, after giving up some months ago. Read A Jobless Rate Still Unaffected by New Hiring here .

Not only do more people lose their jobs during a recession, but the duration of unemployment also always increases, according to Rob Valletta and Katherine Kuang of the San Francisco Fed . The number of Americans unemployed for six months or longer reached an all-time high last year. And Valletta and Kuang have analyzed whether the availability of unemployment insurance has a significant impact on how long people remain unemployed. For our specific test, we look at the increase in unemployment duration observed as the UI extensions were introduced and renewed in 2008 and 2009. We use the "expected unemployment duration" concept from Valletta (2005), which yields a monthly measure of the typical completed duration of unemployment for an individual who becomes unemployed in a particular month, based on the distribution of individual unemployment spells for the current and prior months. This measure more accurately reflects the overall duration of unemployment spells and changes in duration over time than do the average and median duration series published by the BLS, which are tallied from incomplete spells measured at the time each survey is conducted. Figure 2 Unemployment duration by reason (through December 2009, three-month moving average) Note: Authors' calculations from CPS microdata (seasonally adjusted). The solid vertical line indicates the recession start; the dashed lines indicate effective dates for UI extensions (through 12/09). Figure 2 displays the resulting unemployment duration series for job losers and leavers/entrants from 2005 through the end of 2009. The vertical lines identify the start of the recession and the dates for the initiation and renewal of the extended UI benefits programs. Unemployment duration rose slightly in the early phase of the recession and then increased sharply after extended UI benefits became available, reaching a high of about 35 weeks in mid-2009 before declining back to about 30 weeks by the end of the year. Notably, the increase in expected duration was similar for job losers, the group that is eligible for UI benefits, and leavers and entrants, who are ineligible. The similar increase in duration for the UI eligible and ineligible groups suggests that extended UI had only a limited impact on unemployment duration. As of the fourth quarter of 2009, the expected duration of unemployment had risen about 18.7 weeks for job losers and about 17.1 weeks for leavers and entrants, using the years 2006-2007 as a baseline. The differential increase of 1.6 weeks for job losers is the presumed impact of extended UI benefits on unemployment duration. It is straightforward to translate this increase in unemployment duration into an effect on the unemployment rate, based on their proportional relationship and adjusted for the share of job losers in overall unemployment, which was about 67% in December 2009. The implied increase in the unemployment rate is quite small, slightly less than 0.4 percentage point, indicating that without UI extensions, the measured unemployment rate would have been 9.6% in December 2009 rather than the observed 10.0%. Read Extended Unemployment and UI Benefits here .