US Unemployment Rate Surpasses Ten Percent

Last month, for the first time in just over a quarter of a century, unemployment in the United States exceeded ten percent. Although the news is worrisome, analysts, dating back to a year ago, have been predicting that we would surpass ten percent.

The final tally, for the jobless rate, was approximately 10.2 percent, compared to 9.8 in September (190,000 payroll jobs were lost last month).

As unemployment increases, President Obama has taken notice and extended unemployment benefits. As of now, benefits have been increased to as much as ninety-nine weeks in some cases. Obama also stated that the latest reports made it necessary to take such actions and although we loss less jobs than the previous month, our unemployment rate increased. He went on to suggest that the news also a sharp indicator that there are still challenges ahead.