Unemployment Rate Holds at 9.7%

The unemployment rate last month held at 9.7%, the third month with the same rate. The number, and reasons for them, are not that bad; relative to the previous few months. Still it is nothing to celebrate. We are going to need to see a lot more job creation to turn the economy around.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/04/02/breaking-unemployment-stays-at-9-7

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics published a good news/bad news report on employment today. The unemployment rate remained high at 9.7% in March, the same figure as in February. The economy added 162,000 jobs, with half coming in temporary or government work, as the Census Bureau began hiring its survey workers
...
In fact, the number of people working part-time for economic reasons rose to its highest level since December, 9.054 million, up almost 300,000 from February’s 8.791 million.

The number of unemployed rose again in March. In February, the total unemployed was 23.818 million; in March, it rose to 23,840 (seasonally adjusted). That’s still somewhat lower than December’s peak of 24.354 million, but it’s almost five million more than March 2009’s figure of 18.976 million, which was the first full month after passage of the stimulus bill Democrats pushed through in February 2009. Furthermore, the average duration of unemployment increased again to 31.2 weeks, the highest it’s been in months."

To put this in the contexts of the last few months; after rising to %9.5, 'fake' falling to %9.4, rising to %9.7, and then rising again to 9.8%, and rising again to 10.2%, dropping to 10%, held steady, dropping to 9.7%, held steady, and has remained at 9.7%.