The unemployment rate rose .4% over last month to 10.2% — the highest it’s been in 26 years. Economists had predicted the rate would hit 9.9%.

Also in October, 190,000 jobs were lost, putting the nation’s total number of out of work people at 15.7 million. Of these, one-third or 5.6 million have been out of work for more than six months. The greatest losses were seen in the construction, manufacturing and retail sectors. 40,000 retail jobs were cut — which isn’t exactly good news for those in search of seasonal retail jobs.

While the October job losses are still high by historical standards, they do reflect some improvement since the worst of the recession, which saw 741,000 layoffs last January. Economists are now predicting that the job market will begin to see some modest gains (i.e. a net positive number of jobs added to the economy) by the 2nd quarter of 2010.

Until then, Congress and the White House are working to extend benefits to help the long-term unemployed. President Obama will sign a bill today that extends unemployment to 20 weeks.

1. Accountant — A good bean counter is more important than ever in this economy!
2. Administrative Assistant — According to Parade, the definition of the AA has grown tremendously in the last decade. From the switchboard operator of the 1960s to the nerve center of today’s workplace.
3. Customer Service Representative — Here is one that surprised me, as I’d assumed that all service-type jobs were under the gun. I know that retail jobs sure are. But, according to Parade, the economy has made consumers more discerning than ever — which means they expect higher quality customer service. Hmmm, I’m not convinced this rings so true. Have you noticed better service during the downturn?
4. Police Officer — Yup, law enforcement jobs are as recession-proof as they come. And thanks to stimulus dollars, more local police are able to stay afloat. The Parade article points out the competition may be stiffer, given the layoffs in other fields, so expect a run for your money if you’re getting into law enforcement.
5. Staff Nurse, RN — Other expected entry, though the article does point out that growth in hospitals has slowed while nursing jobs at nursing care facilities and home healthcare are organizations are growing. Also in demand are other allied health professionals such as Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists and Medical Assistants.

To read the rest of the article, visit Parade.com.

Two years ago, the unemployment rate among college graduates was less than 3%. Today it’s more than 9%.

And with a continuing lack of job creation, those numbers are likely to increase — since the ‘08 and ‘09 grads will soon be competing with the ‘10 grads for the limited number of entry level positions.

According to a recent CBS report, the problem is being compounded by the growing debt loads most graduates now have. The average student graduates with $3K in credit card debt and $23K in student loan debt (of course, 1/3 of all college students manage to graduate without any debt!). Federal student loans provide a six-month grace period following graduation, after which students are expected to begin repayment.

One option, implies the CBS piece, is joining the Peace Corps, Americorps or Teach for America — all of which are seeing a record number of application and all of which offer some form of student loan repayment/forgiveness in exchange for up to two years of volunteer service.

If you are a recent grad who finds him/herself facing unemployment, check out these job search tips for the recession. You may also want to read this post from Financial Aid Finder about reducing your student loan debt through volunteering for AmeriCorps.

After the slower-then-expected job loss report in August, economists were predicting the end of the recession by year’s end. Now, economists — and even the President — are warning us to brace for an even longer haul.

According to the ADP National Employment Report, 254,000 jobs were lost in September — up from the 200,000 layoffs economists had been expecting. While the layoff rate was the smallest since July 2008 (a bright spot for sure), experts are now predicting at least several more months of continued job losses.

Hardest hit last month were jobs in the service sector (103,000 jobs), manufacturing (74,000 jobs), and construction (73,000 jobs).

In September, the unemployment rate creeped up a tenth of a percentage point as well, to 9.8%. And economists explain that this number is not fully accurate, since it does not account for the half a million out-of-work Americans who have given up looking for a job altogether.

In order for the U.S. to begin lowering its unemployment rate, our private sector needs to add at least 150,000 to 200,000 new jobs each month — i.e. a net gain of more than 400,000 jobs from September’s report.

If you are looking for a job in this current market, there is no doubt that these are discouraging times. Starting next week, I will be running a series on successful work-at-home ventures for those of you who are looking to increase your income streams without having to commute. Are you a successful home-based entrepreneur? I’d love to hear from you. Send me an email and I will be delighted to share your story with our readers!

What’s the solution? According to the Time reporter, it’s as “simple” as an employment-emergency bill, which will:

guarantee jobless workers a basic set of rights for two to three years: health care, access to retraining, subsidized mentoring for careers in high-end manufacturing or health services.

One thing I did notice was that the article once again pointed to recession-proof/growth industries as education, health care and other service industires. It’s the same areas we have been touting for months here. (Just a reminder, the JobMonkey is a great source of information on these growth careers, including our extension section on nursing jobs, teaching ESL jobs, and green jobs.)

Okay, now, politics aside (is that possible these days), what do you think? Go read the article on Time Magazine, and then share your opinions with us!

Unemployment creeped up from a rate of 9.4% in July, and many economists predict that it will top out at 10% by the end of the year.

The news on the “expanded” rate of unemployment is even worse. It rose from 16.3% in July to 16.8% in August. Many economists believe this metric, which takes into account those who have given up searching out of frustration or who have taken a part-time job while still looking for full-time work, is the true measure of our nation’s out-of-work.

Now for the less bad news: “Only” 216,000 people were laid off last month. Obviously for those individuals who lost their job last month, the news is hardly good, but the rate has slowed considerably since the beginning of the summer. The total number of layoffs since the recession started in December 2007 stands at 6.9 million.  The layoff rate in August was the slowest rate since last August 2008.

So, those are the facts & figures, but how is this really affecting you? Do you think the economy is turning around? Are you feeling an improvement or do you think we are months away from the start of recovery?

The unemployment rate also declined for the first time in 15 months by one-tenth of a point, from 9.5 percent in June to 9.4 percent in July.

At an upbeat press conference in the Rose Garden, President Obama declared that the “worst may be behind us” and that “today we’re pointed in the right direction.”

Despite his optimism, the president was careful to temper his remarks: “We have a lot further to go. As far as I’m concerned, we will not have a true recovery until we stop losing jobs.” In fact, the White House has said that President Obama still believes that unemployment will hit 10 percent this year.

While some economists are joining the President in predicting that we have seen the worst of the recessions, others are cautioning that we are still in shaky territory. After all, we are still lowing jobs — at a rate of 247,000 per month right now, which is hardly positive economic growth.

Since the recession began in December 2007, 6.7 million net jobs have been lost. Stabilizing the unemployment rate would require the U.S. economy to add a net total of 125,000 new jobs per month. To get the unemployment rate back down to 5% would take a net job creation rate of 200,000+ jobs a month.

The hardest job hit sector in July was retail, while education, healthcare and federal government employment,  all saw some gains.  Hopefully that spells good news for some of you looking for work!

(Go here to read the full report from the Department of Labor.)

In May, the layoff rate had slowed significantly to 322,000 jobs lost.

This month’ figures mark the first time in four months that the number of job layoffs rose from the previous month.

Unfortunately the bad news doesn’t stop there. The unemployment rate also continued to climb to 9.5% — closing in on the 10% or more that President Obama predicted two weeks ago.

The unemployment rate only counts those who are actively looking for a job. Those who have a part-time job because they couldn’t find a full-time job are not counted. Nor are those who have stopped actively looking. These Americans are calculated into the so-called underemployment rate, which is at a record high of 16.5%.

Nearly 4.4 million Americans have been out of work for six months or more and have likely run out of unemployment benefits. Since January 1, 2009, almost 3.4 million jobs have been lost.

With today’s report, economists are scrambling to predict where –and when — the recession will bottom out. What do you think? Will we see an end to the job-letting by the fall?

(On a separate note, stay tuned next week for a return to our Thursday Reader Mailbag feature. I had a great Q&A all ready to go, but decided to preempt it for the unemployment numbers. Normally they are released on a Friday, but due to Independence Day, the Labor Department released them today.)

Reading her post got me wondering how many JobMonkey readers are currently looking for a job. So I put together this little poll to find out how the recession is affecting you personally. Please take a few seconds to answer it — and feel free to leave me a comment about your personal situation below.

Although the rate of job loss has slowed over the past three months, employers have not started hiring new workers to keep pace with previous lay-offs.

“We’ve got to produce 150,000 jobs every month just to keep pace,” the President told Al Hunt.

In other words, the future is starting to look a little more secure for those of you who currently have a job. But for those of you still job searching, the job market is unfortunately still rather cold and will probably remain that way through the end of the year.

If you need some tips for finding a job during the recession, check out this post from last December with six tips for job hunting during tough times. A quick rundown of the tips:

1. Research recession-proof industries
Teaching, nursing, defense industry jobs – these are some of the most “recession-proof” sectors.  To learn more, check out this list of the top recession-proof careers.

2. Focus on Achievements
Rethink your resume in terms of measurable achievements. For more tips on how to do this, visit JobMonkey’s section on resume writing tips.

3. Volunteer

There are many benefits being a volunteering, from gaining real experience to getting your foot in the door with a future employer. For more on volunteering your way into your next job, check out these past blog posts:

• Volunteering More Popular Than Ever

• Tuesday Tips: Make Volunteering Work to Your Advantage

4. Network, network, network.
Open up your Contacts and start making calls. Then ask those people to make some calls too.  Here’s more on how to network:

• 5 Ways to Be a Better Networker

• How to Network Online

• What’s Networking and How to Do It

5. Freelance
Not all fields support freelancing, but if yours does, this is a great way to stay afloat financially during a job search, while strengthening your skills, enhancing your experience, and making great connections.

6.  Stay optimistic
If you are feeling downtrodden, it will show in your interactions with network connections and potential future employers. No, the economy isn’t booming yet, but your job search can be.