Number of unemployed women 16 years and older tops 55.5 million.
The new jobs report is in showing the economy added 248,000 jobs in September, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures also show a record number of women—55,553,000—16 years and older are not participating in the labor force.
The first look at the September jobs numbers is certainly better than last month when the economy saw the most anemic growth all year. The 248k job added drops the unemployment rate to 5.9%, below 6% for the first time in 6 years. The biggest gains were in professional and business services (adding 81,000 jobs), retail trade (35,000) and healthcare (20,000).
The report says that the overall unemployment rate dropped by 329,000 to 9.3 million, falling 1.3% (1.9 million) over the last year. While those figures seem promising on the surface, as the LA Times reported in September, the long-term unemployment numbers remain at record highs.
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