10% unemployment rate adds to pressure on Obama for more stimulus

“This means a slower, more frustrating economic recovery,” he said.

The jobless rate rise occurred even with a downward revision to the number of job cuts in the prior two months.

Non-farm payrolls fell by 219,000 in September (instead of the prior estimate of 263,000) and by 154,000 in August (revised from 201,000).

Overall, the monthly report was worse than expectations for a 10 percent jobless rate and 175,000 job losses despite the improving trend.

“The headline number of 10.2 percent will be shouted from the mountaintops and from the voters,” said Andrew Busch, analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

“The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury are in the glare of the klieg lights to get something done to arrest the job losses.”

Fred Dickson at DA Davidson & Co. said the report “continues to point to an economy that is struggling, but the picture is not nearly as dire as seen at the beginning of the year.”

“Slowly, the trajectory is improving, but, given the huge number of unemployed and underemployed, our view of a very slow economic recovery in 2010 and 2011 remains very much in place,” he added. “This report will not do much to encourage the Fed to raise rates anytime soon.”

The number of unemployed persons increased to 15.7 million. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed has risen by 8.2 million, the Labor Department said.

The world's largest economy grew at a seasonally adjusted 3.5 percent annual rate in the July-September period. The increase was the first since the second quarter of 2008.

For the U.S. economic community, the recession will not be over until it is declared by a research panel, National Bureau of Economic Research, recognized as the official arbiter of business cycles.

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