Obama: “Unemployment Rate Unacceptably High”

The U.S. Department of Labor today reported the nation’s unemployment rate is still at 9.6%, even though overall non-farm payroll jobs increased by 151,000 in the month of October. The unemployment rate for African Americans decreased to 15.7% in October from the September 2010 unemployment rate of 16.1%.

Part of the explanation for the decrease in the unemployment rate for blacks may lie in the overall number of individuals participating in the labor force. For example, the overall civilian labor participation rate, defined as the percentage of the civilian non-institutional population that is in the labor force, edged down to 64.5% in October from 64.7% in September. However, African Americans saw a slight increase in their civilian labor participation rate to 62.2% in October from 61.7% in September.

There were gains in mining and service-providing jobs, according to the Labor Department. The leisure and hospitality sector saw job losses of 26,000, while manufacturing lost 7,000 jobs.

President Obama pointed out that more than one million jobs have been created since January 2010. While acknowledging that the unemployment rate was unacceptably high, he noted that October was the fourth straight month of job growth over 100,000.

The President continued his conciliatory tone, indicating that he was open to any idea or proposal that could lead to increased hiring. He appeared in his remarks to open the door to tax breaks for businesses and initiatives that would spur investment in infrastructure, notably high-speed rail and high-speed Internet.

President Obama, who today left  for Asia, also said that the U.S. needs to embark on opening up more international markets for the purpose of selling more American-made goods abroad.

“Success in this depends on how we cooperate,” said the President, in an obvious bow to the American electorate’s desire for more solutions versus partisan bickering. “We can’t spend the next two years in gridlock.”

Alton Drew is a political economist and commentator. In addition to being a contributing writer at Politic365.com, Mr. Drew blogs at Law and Politics of Broadband, Paying for Dodd Frank, and The American Centrist. Follow him on Twitter @altondrew, become a friend at https://www.facebook.com/alton.drew, or visit his website at www.altondrew.com.

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