Unemployment Rate Rises to 9.6 Percent

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent in August from 9.5 percent a month earlier. But the private sector added a net total of 67,000 jobs in August, according to Labor Department figures out Friday morning. The number is lower than the 107,000 companies added in the previous month, but made August the third month in a row that jobs were added. Analysts were expecting 41,000 jobs to be added. In August, over 500,000 Americans re-entered the job market and re-commenced their searches, pushing the unemployment rate up (unemployed workers who are not looking for work are not included in statistics charting the jobless rate). Said economist Ryan Sweet: "We really need private businesses to step up and begin to hire more aggressively for this recovery to really gain momentum."